I’ve always enjoyed Michelle Rodriguez on camera. She kicks some serious butt in most of her movie roles. In real life, Michelle’s a hot, party-girl mess, and I still don’t understand the Zac Efron thing. Sometimes some weird stuff comes out of her mouth, which is what happened here. Some rumors started circulating about Michelle starring in a Green Lantern role, although god knows why they’d want to make a sequel.

TMZ caught up with Michelle on Friday night and asked about the casting rumor. In TMZ’s video, Michelle laughs and says, “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard … Like, stop stealing, you know, all the white people’s superheroes. Like, make up your own. Know what I’m saying, like what’s up with that?” TMZ implies that Michelle was referring to Samuel L. Jackson playing Nick Fury. Yeah, she probably was shading Sam, which bugs. He plays the Ultimate Nick Fury, a character who was designed with Sam Jackson in mind! His race shouldn’t matter anyway. Just like it doesn’t matter that Jason Momoa is playing Aquaman.

Michelle felt the backlash and recorded a video she posted to her Facebook page (with her cat in the background). I don’t think she improved upon the situation:

I want to clarify about my comment yesterday. I stuck my foot in my mouth once again, and I said that people should stop trying to steal white people superheroes. I guess it got taken out of context because a lot of people got offended … but I have a tendency to speak without a filter, so sorry about that. What I really meant was, ultimately at the end of the day there’s a language. And the language that you speak in Hollywood is successful franchise. And I think that there are many cultures in Hollywood that are not white that can come up with their own mythology … I’m just saying that instead of trying to turn a girl character into a guy or instead of trying to turn a white character into a black character or Latin character, I think that people should stop being lazy, and that people should actually make an effort in Hollywood to develop their own mythology.

[From Facebook]

Michelle’s lack of comic book knowledge doesn’t help matters. There are thousands of Green Lanterns in the comic books, not just the Hal Jordan character played by Ryan Reynolds. Some of them are men, some are women, and plenty of them are not white.

Putting that point aside, Michelle believes that placing minorities into roles that were written as “white” is intellectually lazy. Yes, it would be amazing if Hollywood would adapt tales of mythological figures from non-Eurocentric cultures. As the Daily Beast suggests, “There are tons of mythological figures in the African diaspora and across indigenous American cultures and Asian cultures that could be explored via major Hollywood productions.” Agreed. But I don’t see how it’s a bad thing when the best actor for a job captures a role, and those decisions shouldn’t be dependent upon race.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN