Michelle Rodriguez had a very particular ask for the costume department for her role in the upcoming film The Assignment: that her prosthetic penis be a “big one,” according to director Walter Hill.
“Well, I will say this: She said, ‘I don’t want to be embarrassed. I want a big one!’” Hill told Entertainment Tonight of Rodriguez’s adamant request. “And I said, ‘Everybody, all the men on the crew, will envy your endowment. I’ll make sure of that.’ She was pleased with the result.”
In The Assignment, Rodriguez, 38, plays an assassin who unknowingly receives sex reassignment surgery after her victim’s sister (Sigourney Weaver), a plastic surgeon, seeks an unusual kind of revenge.
“I was like, ‘I want the biggest c–k we could possibly get!’ I was adamant about it,” Rodriguez told The Hollywood Reporter. “I’ve encountered a few skinny boys with really, really big — you know — so I thought, why not be one?”
Added the actress, “But it’s very uncomfortable — I gotta say, I don’t know how guys do it. Now I know why guys are way more physically sexually thinkers than women are — because it’s always there! I mean, if it’s rubbing between your legs all the time, I’m sure I’d think about it all the time, too!”
Rodriguez also revealed that she tried to get fully into the role by joining Tinder as a man just to try her hand at online dating.
“Playing a naked man was really hard. It’s a good four hours of prep, two for the chin and nose implants alone,” she said. “I look kind of Mediterranean, don’t you agree? I made a Tinder account for myself [as a man], and it was so funny. Got some matches!”
The Assignment has sparked major backlash from the LGBTQ community, with critics pointing out that the film can be perceived as insensitive and transphobic. Rodriguez, however, has stuck by the movie and wrote a lengthy post to Instagram last fall in defense of the premise.
“I never felt more like a woman than when I played a man,” she wrote, adding, “In retrospect, I’m glad I took the plunge, the industry seems to be running low on edgy creativity & ‘real take a chance’ controversy, sometimes it makes me want to scream. Instead, I did what I always do when I’m bored with the ‘status quo,’ I shot a crazy b movie indy to express my frustration.”
