“Not so long ago people who looked like us didn’t appear in major film franchises,” says Michelle Rodriguez at Cinemacon 2023 in Las Vegas. The annual event previews Hollywood’s most anticipated films in the coming year and Fast and Furious definitely falls into that category.
Michelle Rodriguez, who plays Letty Ortiz in the Fast and Furious franchise, was adamant about giving Latinos their due, joining her fellow Fast costars Tyrese Gibson, Sung Kang, and Jordana Brewster at Caesars Palace for a sneak peek at Fast X.
“None of us would be here if it weren’t for the great, talented women and men who paved the way for all of us including the legendary Rita Moreno who joins us in ‘Fast X,’” Rodriguez continued before making way for onscreen husband, Vin Diesel. “Rita Moreno was the first Hispanic woman in history to win an Academy Award,” she says before starting to sing ‘I Want to Live in America,’ a nod to West Side Story, the film that earned Moreno her Academy Award. Moreno would go on to earn the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) title.
Moreno drives into Fast X as Abuelita Toretto in the latest franchise installment and she wholeheartedly agrees with Rodriguez. “One of the things that is so impressive about this particular franchise is that it has brought every kind of person to the screen, every nationality, every color, every shade. Particularly because it came at a time when nobody was caring about such things,” Moreno said in a separate interview with the press.
Rita Moreno is one of four Oscar-winning actresses in the latest chapter. Charlize Theron, Brie Larson, and Helen Mirren all make a stop in Fast X. “There is not one single franchise that can claim that,” says Panamanian-born actress Jordana Brewster from the Las Vegas stage.
The end of the road for Fast X starts when the movie screeches into theaters everywhere on May 19. It is the first of two parts in the final chapter of the Fast franchise.
Fast is only one of a multitude of projects with prominent Latinos at Cinemacon. Check back here for more!
