Actress Michelle Rodriguez is back in the driver's seat -- and from the dead -- in Fast & Furious 6, but she almost wasn't involved in the franchise at all due to concerns about her character.

Rodriguez told New York that the original incarnation of her character in the franchise, Letty Ortiz, would have been unfathomable to moviegoers in part because she was unfathomable to the actress herself.

"They definitely wouldn't have related to what was on paper for the first one," she said, describing how emotional she got at the first introduction to the Ortiz the writers originally proposed.

"I was crying on the set. I was like, 'Look, dude, I love you guys, I really want to be a part of this, but I can't play a slut in front of millions of people around the world.' I'd rather go back to Jersey City, doing my small little indie movies."

She called Angelina Jolie influential and an example of a woman who's "respectable and kicking ass in a movie." Rodriguez said she had to fight with director Rob Cohen to give her in the first Fast movie a scene where she could "punch somebody and knock him out." She wanted to prove for herself, and her character, that she was worthy of a big role.

"In the streets, if your tribe was getting in a fight," said the actress, "it doesn't matter if you're a girl or a boy, you're throwing a punch because that's just the way the streets work."

Now that she's been able to make Letty her own woman, Rodriguez has become protective of fellow actresses in and outside the franchise -- but only the ones bringing their A-game.

"If I ever hear anything demeaning about a chick who's a part of the family, I stand up and defend. And everyone knows it," Rodriguez said. "I'm really about that girl power, you know, not just about me, but just about anyone who's in the game repping what we're repping.

"You need to bring it. And if you're a girl who's not bringing it, it's kind of pointless to me."

The concept of family has become important to Rodriguez after spending all these years with franchise. She said she's gotten the opportunity to watch her co-stars grow into themselves since the first film's release. Rodriguez called it "a beautiful thing" to have such strong relationships in Hollywood where people are still able to work together 13 to 14 years later.

While she getting along great with her co-stars -- she calls Vin Diesel and Paul Walker "frickin' awesome dudes" -- there is one place she's not quite willing to go. There will be no karaoke with Vin Diesel, Rodriguez insisted.

"Isn't it insane?" she said, in reference to an infamous video of the actor performing Rihanna's Stay. "And you look at the reception it got, and I'm like, 'Wow, you really do have fans!' "

The actress said karaoke is not for her, adding, "I'm too shy for that kind of stuff."

Tags
Michelle Rodriguez, Fast and furious 6