Hitting like a girl
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 1, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Photos from Screen Gems Boxing trainer Hector
(Jaime Tirelli) gets Diana (Michelle
Rodriguez) hyped up before a match in the new film
"Girlfight."
By Sandy Yang
Daily Bruin Contributor
First-time director Karyn Kusama could have metaphorically
portrayed her own struggle as a filmmaker in
“Girlfight,” her debut about a young woman who vents
her anger and frustration through boxing.
In Kusama’s case, as with any untested director with a
personal vision, the road to financing and putting out a movie was
a struggle fraught with more obstacles than making the movie
itself.
Today, these struggles and their outcome mark the ultimate
underdog story for Kusama, 32, who won the prestigious Grand Jury
Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, as well as notice by
leading film critics such as Roger Ebert.
And really, every Sundance success is a Cinderella story for
beginning filmmakers, but Kusama’s is one that blossomed out
of desperation.
 Michelle Rodriguez takes a break in the
ring in Karyn Kusama’s directorial debut, "Girlfight."
“Someone bet me a hundred bucks that I couldn’t write
the script in three weeks,” Kusama said. “For me, I was
desperately trying to get a hundred bucks, which is getting an idea
(of the situation I was in) four or five years ago. I was just
going to write this, and uh, this doesn’t have to be good. It
just has to be done.”
That script was, of course, “Girlfight,” which tells
the story of Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez), a young woman who
feels confined by her life in the projects and lashes out by
fighting. When Diana happens upon a gym and witnesses the secret
world of boxing, she discovers a place to focus her energy and
anger ““ despite her father’s disapproval.
Without knowing it, she finds the dignity she never had and a
romance within the ring.
Whether Kusama really thought her script was good or not, she
fought for financing and a venue to show her film. Dealing with
investors who didn’t seem to understand they had to part with
their money if they wanted the movie made, Kusama found help from
her executive producer John Sayles (director of indie darling
“Lone Star”), who lent money to the project.
Kusama, however, was able to pay Sayles back after the
Independent Film Channel contributed money to
“Girlfight.”
Now four years after writing the script, Kusama is talking with
journalists at the 25th floor of her publicist’s Wilshire
office overlooking Los Angeles.
“There is such a constant onslaught of Hollywood products
that are being forced upon to the public … I’m very sobered
by how much of a struggle it is getting those smaller films out to
the people,” she said.
“I’m really lucky that people will have a chance to
see this movie but God, it takes a lot of work. You’re
competing with machines and corporations,” Kusama said to the
knowing laugh of entertainment journalists who have heard the
familiar story many times.
The struggle of making a movie may not be anything new, but the
film’s story certainly explored a world that has been given
little exposure in the media.
 Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez) and
her boyfriend Adrian (Santiago Douglas) try to
find time for romance in "Girlfight."
This boxing story was no rehash of “Rocky” for
female crowds, as Kusama admits she hadn’t seen the Sylvester
Stallone star vehicle.
“I’ve seen the parts when he drinks the egg and when
he runs up the stairs,” Kusama said.
Instead, the movie came from Kusama’s own experience as a
female boxer in her early 20s. Though Kusama always knew filmmaking
would be her calling, the experience in the ring gave her
perspective on growing up, intimacy, anger and transformation
““ especially of a teenager ““ and rich fodder for her
first film.
The lack of authentic Latino American portrayals in the movies
also spurred Kusama’s interest in bringing this slice of life
from the Brooklyn projects to audiences, as well as paying homage
to great Latino boxers. Though she’s half-Japanese, Kusama
drew from her own experience growing up Asian American in a largely
white suburb.
“I wanted to find a way to create a voice for those not
heard, basically, and that’s a lot of people in this
country,” Kusama said.
Rodriguez, a former full-time movie extra, was more than happy
to blast Hollywood for its canned laughter, plastic surgery,
sensationalism and overall “fakeness” throughout the
interview,
The outspoken 22-year-old actress, however, only had unadorned
praise for “Girlfight,” which she says felt more
genuine.
“It felt like I was doing something good and positive and
beautiful and strong and different,” Rodriguez said.
According to Rodriguez, even the making of the film attests to
the realness of it all. The actor wasn’t given a stunt double
as she was sparring with opponents in the ring.
With the standard headgear and protection, Rodriguez learned to
spar four months before filming, though she had never before
touched a pair of gloves in her life.
“It turned out she was a natural actor and a natural
athlete, and that is a very rare combination,” said Kusama,
who auditioned 350 actresses for the part. “She was willing
to get into the ring and spar and get her face beaten in, and
that’s just a very rare type of person.”
For Rodriguez, that was much better than what she could have
been. “I went to business school, but I quit after four and a
half months at Drake (University) and I decided I didn’t want
to be a puppet of society, sit in a office and wait to get a
promotion for an office with a window,” said Rodriguez, who
had a bandage on her forehead as she talked to journalists.
Rodriguez will next appear in “3AM” with Danny
Glover and Pam Grier and “Redline” with Vin Diesel.
With “Girlfight’s” success, Kusama has also
been courted to take on bigger projects, but the director hopes to
hold on to her independence as a filmmaker ““ a smart move,
considering her relentless push to find an audience for
“Girlfight” has already made a difference.
As the film slowly finds its way into theaters, Kusama can
always look at women’s boxing and know her film took some
part in inspiring young women to participate in a field they were
never encouraged to go into.
“I would have never seen a 10-year-old girl in any of
those (boxing) gyms until now, and when they become 15,
they’re going to become good and at 20 they’re going to
be scary,” Kusama said. “When I started, there was no
competition among women and there were very few women … but I do
think we’re seeing more and more women and that’s
what’s going to be changing the face of the sport.”
FILM: “Girlfight” is now playing in select theaters
nationwide.
