The Untold Truth Of Michelle Rodriguez

While her mother and maternal grandmother lived by the rules of their strict faith, her father was "more the intellectual type" according to Michelle Rodriguez; as she later put it, "I was split in two, kind of like a brain." Her mom and dad would eventually split in two as well, with her Puerto Rican father deciding to concentrate on his career in the U.S. Army. Rodriguez moved around a lot after the divorce, and all the upheaval left her feeling like an outsider no matter where she ended up.

"I never liked not fitting in, especially moving around so much as a kid because I was an Army brat," she said. "I spent the beginning of my life in Texas, and then my parents got divorced and I went to the Dominican Republic, learned Spanish, forgot every word of English I knew, and then, when I was about 11, 12, we moved to Jersey City. Everywhere I go I'm an outsider." Having to regularly uproot her life and start over forced Rodriguez to toughen up, and she used that toughness to deal with bullies every time she arrived at a new school. "I had older brothers who would pick on me," she later explained, "and injustice always boiled my blood."