Director James Cameron didn’t let a little thing like the death of their characters stand in the way of original Avatar stars Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver from returning for Avatar: The Way of Water. Lang reappeared as a Na’vi avatar with the memories and persona of Colonel Miles Quaritch, while Weaver portrayed Kiri Sully, the daughter of her former character, Dr. Grace Augustine, via Grace’s Na’vi avatar. But when Cameron made a similar offer to Michelle Rodriguez, the actress says she refused.
Via Variety, Rodriguez told Vanity Fair that Cameron approached her about possibly reprising her role as Trudy Chacón. In the first film, Trudy was a human combat pilot who sided with Jake Sully and the Na’vi against Quaritch’s army. And Trudy fought alongside the Na’vi until she was killed in the final battle. One of the reasons she turned down Cameron’s proposal is that Rodriguez wanted to honor Trudy’s sacrifice.
“Dude, when I saw Jim [Cameron] recently, he was like, ‘I was thinking, “What if Michelle came back?,'” recalled Rodriguez. “A lot of the other characters came back [in The Way of Water].”‘ I was like, ‘You can’t do that—I died as a martyr.’”
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Additionally, Rodriguez says she told Cameron that she was wary about appearing as a resurrected character for the fourth time in her career.
“’I came back in Resident Evil, I wasn’t supposed to,'” said Rodriguez. “‘I came back in Machete, I wasn’t supposed to. [And] I came back with Letty [in the Fast and the Furious films], I wasn’t supposed to. We can’t do a fourth [time], that would be overkill!’”
“I don’t understand, it’s so weird,” added Rodriguez when she contemplated why her characters keep dying and returning. “I guess they don’t know what to do with the girl who doesn’t have a boyfriend. ‘She doesn’t have a boyfriend. Should we keep her alive, or kill her?’”
Rodriguez is currently co-starring in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, which is now out in theaters.
Do you think Rodriguez’s Trudy should have returned to the world of Avatar? Let us know in the comment section below!
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