Michelle Rodriguez threatens to leave Fast and Furious over limited female roles

Actor Michelle Rodriguez has threatened to leave the Fast and Furious film series if the franchise doesn’t improve the roles it creates for female actors.

The actor, who stars as the street racer Leticia “Letty” Ortiz in the films, made the comments on Instagram. “F8 is out digitally today, I hope they decide to show some love to the women of the franchise on the next one,” she wrote, “or I just might have to say goodbye to a loved franchise.”

She added: “It’s been a good ride & I’m grateful for the opportunity the fans & studio have provided over the years … One Love.”

Rodriguez has appeared in five Fast and Furious films, most recently The Fate of the Furious (titled Fast and Furious 8 outside the US). While that movie introduced two new female characters, played by Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren, Rodriguez had limited screen time, and the film had a greater focus on male actors such as Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson.

Rodriguez has previously expressed concern about the overly masculine nature of the franchise. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last month she said that the tone of the franchise was male-focused because of the violent criminal world it represents. She had hoped that as the series progressed it would evolve out of that “90s macho vibe”, but the film series’ growing popularity in developing markets like China, where “the grand majority of the population are boys”, had made that impossible.

“At the end of the day, what message are we sending out there for women?” Rodriguez said. “It does weigh heavy on [me], especially in the male-dominated environment that I work in,” she said.

The Fate of the Furious was released in April and has grossed over $1bn at the worldwide box office, with a combined gross of the eight-film series to over $5bn globally.