The Resident Evil franchise is at a crossroads with rumors of a reboot giving fans new hope, but Milla Jovovich is looking back on the past film series and sharing that it might have had a very different look. The actress reveals she had to fight to keep Michelle Rodriguez from stealing her role on that 2002 debut film.
Milla Jovovich Says Michelle Rodriguez Was Almost Alice In Resident Evil
Refinery 29 reports that Ms. Jovovich almost quit the first Resident Evil film, which would have undoubtedly had a disastrous effect on the future of the franchise. Milla was cast in the lead, but was replaced by Michelle Rodriguez prior to going into production.
Ms. Jovovich recalls that Rodriguez had just filmed Girl Fight and was fast becoming Hollywood’s new “it” girl, while Milla had been the favored actress for a few years. She admits her star power was beginning to wane in comparison to Michelle’s fresh face at the time Resident Evil was set to go into production. The studio was hoping to capitalize on Rodriguez’s rising fame.
Milla had other ideas. Now, as she recollects the incident, the Resident Evil actress says she knows the story makes her sound demanding, but Jovovich points out that she had been promised the lead. She didn’t feel it was fair for the studio to go back on their word, just to capitalize on Rodriguez.
Milla Jovovich Gave Her Future Husband Paul W.S. Anderson An Ultimatum
Entertainment Weekly reports that the revised Resident Evil script with Michelle Rodriguez as the lead created a conflict that would ultimately change Milla Jovovich’s entire life.
“I ended up reading the script on the plane, so by the time I landed in Berlin I was livid,” Jovovich recalled. “I got to the hotel and said, ‘We have to have a big talk, or I’m going to be on a flight tomorrow morning.’”
Anderson and Jovovich ended up spending three hours in a hotel room revising the Resident Evil script page by page, putting Milla back in the lead. That time together was what brought the two together, recalls Milla, who began dating Anderson during the filming of Resident Evil .
Paul Anderson and Milla Jovovich later married in 2009.
Michelle Rodriguez was recast as Rain in Resident Evil and, although her character dies in that film, Michelle reprised Rain in a later film, 2012’s Resident Evil: Retribution .
[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]