After her legal trouble, Michelle Rodriguez’s career hit a slump. She told PR.com that she felt like the general public had misconceptions about her and why she’d gotten into trouble. “After ‘Lost’ I got lost!” she said. “People thought, ‘She’s like all those little girls who go around partying all the time.’ Are you kidding me?! I went to jail for a glass and a half of wine… on a holiday! Relax people!”
For a comeback, she traveled to Pandora. After almost a decade in the industry, Rodriguez was aware of the fact that she had carved out a niche for herself; when she starred in James Cameron’s mega hit “Avatar,” she was open about the fact that Trudy was like her other roles. “With that character I keep playing, if you notice, the grand majority of the time she’s very similar,” she said. “Every character I play has that one little thing that is pretty notable.” That is, Trudy is a tomboy, and like many of Rodriguez’s characters, she wears either a military uniform or a plain white tank top, toting a hefty gun. She also gets to sport futuristic-looking white and blue face paint during the film’s climax.
Unlike some of her co-stars, Rodriguez remained human, but as she noted to NJ.com, she didn’t mind working with the CGI and motion capture. “It was all tangible. I got to see how the aliens move, where they were looking. It was a whole different ballgame with Jim,” she said.