In the first ‘Resident Evil’ part from 2002, Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez took on the two main roles. While Jovovich was originally slated to star, Rodriguez’s signing meant that director Paul W. S. Anderson rewrote the script to give Rodriguez a bigger role – to Jovovich’s detriment.
Milla Jovovich, who previously starred in “The Fifth Element” and had her big break with it, explained in an interview how she almost gave up the lead role in “Resident Evil” to Michelle Rodriguez:
“I almost left the movie. I was shooting something else and Paul had hired Michelle to play Rain. She had just come off filming “Girlfight” and there was a bit of Oscar hype. So Paul rewrote the script for her. He makes my character “the girl” and Rain “the man.” She got all the big action scenes and became the new Alice, while my Alice became a sidekick.
Milla Jovovich fought for the lead role
It’s nothing new for a movie to undergo changes as a result of a cast. Because it is logical that those responsible for the project want to put the prominent or hip faces in the limelight. However, such a drastic change as the one Jovovich talks about is still very unusual, because here one could certainly speak of the targeted destruction of the actual main character. No wonder the actress complained about it:
“I didn’t get the new design until I was on my way to Germany from Canada where I was working. I read the script on the plane and when we landed in Berlin I was furious. I went to the hotel and said: “We need to have a good talk, otherwise I’ll be on the plane again tomorrow.”
Apparently they succeeded, as Paul WS Anderson came by that same afternoon and went through the script page by page with Milla Jovovich for three hours. In doing so, Jovovich made it clear to the director when she felt like one of the best scenes had been taken away from her.. Last but not least, this is also the starting gun for the relationship between Anderson and Jovovich, who have been married since 2009 and have two children together.
It’s hard to imagine what Resident Evil would have looked like if Michelle Rodriguez had played the lead role. Milla Jovovich simply left her mark on the series too much for that and eventually made it the biggest success of her career thanks to the six parts. That Rodriguez is also a famous action actress, she has been able to prove for years in the “The Fast And The Furious” franchise, where she can be seen as Letty, most recently again in “Fast & Furious 10”.