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Michelle Rodriguez as Ana-Lucia Cortez
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Michelle Rodriguez: |
Rodriguez
was born in Bexar County, Texas to Rafael Rodriguez (a Puerto Rican)
and Carmen (a native of the Dominican Republic); her parents divorced
in 1986. She was raised a Jehovah's Witness by her devoutly religious
maternal grandmother, and has a total of ten half-siblings or
siblings, some of whom she has never met.
Rodriguez moved to the Dominican Republic with her mother when she was
8 and lived in Puerto Rico when she was 11, later settling in New
Jersey. She dropped out of high school at age 17 (after having been
kicked out of 6 different schools), but later earned her GED.
Film career
Rodriguez was a struggling actress when she ran across an ad
advertising an open casting call for the low-budget, independent film,
Girlfight. Michelle beat out 350 other applicants for the part, and
was cast in the starring role of Diana Guzman, a troubled teen who
decides to channel her aggression by training to become a boxer. It
was her first audition. The film was released in 2000, and Rodriguez's
performance was recognized by both critics and audiences.
Subsequently, she has had notable roles in other successful movies,
including The Fast and the Furious and Resident Evil. She joined the
cast of the TV series Lost in 2005, playing tough cop Ana-Lucia
Cortez.
In 2002, she was ranked #77 in Stuff magazine’s “102 Sexiest Women
In The World”, and #34 in Maxim’s "100 Sexiest Women". |
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| Ana-Lucia
Cortez: |
Prior to
Oceanic Flight 815
Ana-Lucia was a Los Angeles police officer. It is revealed that she
has conflicts with her captain, who is also her mother, but that she
doesn't ask for any special treatment and, prior to her suspension,
got on well with all of her workmates. While investigating the scene
of a burglary, she encounters a man who – claiming it was a mistake
– tells her he is a student. The man says he was reaching for his
ID, but instead pulls out a gun and shoots her four times. It is later
revealed that she was pregnant at the time.
Ana-Lucia spends the next several months recovering and in therapy;
during this time her boyfriend Danny leaves her.
On her return to the force she becomes noticeably harsh with a man at
a domestic disturbance, indicating that her recovery isn't complete.
At the station, a man is brought in whose fingerprints match those at
the burglary. Ana-Lucia maintains that it isn't the man who shot her,
even though he has confessed to the crime. After he is released, she
follows him to a bar; when he leaves, she follows him outside. After
getting his attention, she tells him that she was pregnant when he
shot her, after which she shoots him six times: three shots at range,
three point blank, killing him.
Prior to boarding Flight 815, Ana-Lucia meets and flirts with Jack
Shephard at a bar at Sydney airport in the episode "Exodus: Part
1". The pair arranges to get together during the flight, with
Ana-Lucia revealing that she is seated in the back of the plane, seat
42F (42 is one of the sequence of numbers in Lost).
On the island
After the tail section of the plane crashes in "The Other 48
Days", Ana unofficially becomes the leader of the survivors. The
group does not fare as well as the group on the other side of the
island due to a lack of people, and without a doctor who is more able
to help with the crash survivors' injuries, many of the injured
tail-section survivors die within a week of the crash.
On the first day they are stranded, Ana takes a liking to two
children. She promises them that she will reunite them with their
parents, and becomes relatively friendly with Goodwin, an assumed
fellow survivor who claims past service in the Peace Corps.
The first night, the Others attack the camp, taking the three
strongest members of their group. They attempt to take Eko, but he
manages to kill two of them and escape. Two weeks later the Others
attack the camp again and abduct nine of the survivors, including the
two children. After killing one of the Others, Ana discovers a piece
of paper with the names of all the kidnapped, along with their
descriptions.
After the abduction, the Tailies decide to take refuge in the jungle.
During the course of the trek, Ana becomes highly suspicious of
Nathan, noting that she had not seen him on the plane, and wondering
about his long absences from camp. By the time they set up a new camp
in the jungle, complete with a pit they dug as a jail cell, Ana
accuses Nathan of being in league with those who abducted the other
survivors (the Others), and places him into the pit. The other
survivors express doubt about this course of action, but do nothing to
oppose Ana. One night, when the others are sleeping, Goodwin frees
Nathan, but before Nathan can flee, Goodwin breaks his neck, killing
him, revealing himself to be in league with the Others.
Goodwin is able to abscond with Nathan's body, giving the impression
that he has escaped and fled. However, Goodwin's cover is blown when
Ana confronts him with the fact that he had emerged from the jungle
just 10 minutes after the plane crash, but with completely dry
clothes. Goodwin tells Ana that the children are safe and that those
who were on the list were kidnapped because they were "good
people". Goodwin attacks Ana, who after a physical struggle, is
able to impale him through the chest with a wooden stake, killing him.
Whether as a result of her actions that indirectly led to Nathan's
death, or having had to kill Goodwin, Ana sobs with grief. Eko,
speaking for the first time since the night he was nearly abducted,
tells her everything will be all right. She asks him why it took him
forty days to speak; he asks her why it took her forty days to cry.
Subsequently, the survivors encounter Sawyer, Michael, and Jin, after
they have unsuccessfully attempted to escape the island via a raft,
which the Others have destroyed, and have also shot Sawyer in the
shoulder. At first the two groups take each other to be the Others,
and after the Tailies place the three rafters in the pit, Ana (whom
they have not yet met), is also placed in the pit posing as another
captive, in order to learn more about the three men. After taking
Sawyer's gun away from him, Ana reveals her true allegiance, and
leaves the pit.
Eventually, the Tailies, beginning to trust the three, decide to let
them lead them to their camp on the other side of the island. During
their journey, Sawyer falls unconscious as a result of his wound's
infection, and the insistence on carrying him to camp leads to
increased tension with Ana. By the time the group is within range of
the camp, they hear the telltale whispers associated with the Others,
and as Sawyer, Michael and Jin's campmate, Shannon emerge from the
jungle after seeing images of Michael's son Walt, Ana shoots her in
the abdomen, killing her. Shannon's lover, Sayid, happens on the scene
immediately afterward, and (as continued in the episode Collision),
Sayid quickly pulls his gun on Ana. Mr. Eko stops him and, after a
scuffle, Sayid is knocked unconscious. Ana-Lucia, believing Sayid will
not stop until he has revenge on her for Shannon's death, has him tied
to a tree, and Ana's fellow Tailies, Eko, Bernard and Libby,
increasingly find their loyalty to Ana tested as a result. Ultimately,
Eko decides to carry the ailing Sawyer to his camp, and Michael, Jin,
Libby and Bernard eventually decide to follow, leaving the restrained
Sayid alone with Ana. The two slowly begin to bare their souls to one
another. Sayid realizes Ana does not have a plan, but merely her
guilt, and reveals to her his own past misdeeds, including his torture
of fellow Iraqis during his time in the Republican Guard. By the end
of the episode, she unties him and tells him to kill her. He tells her
that it wouldn't do her any good, as they are both already dead
inside.
She does not attend Shannon's funeral, though Eko explains to her that
most of the survivors understand that the girl's death was an
accident. Jack tries to reconnect with Ana-Lucia, and the two share a
bottle of tequila on the beach. In the days following, however,
Ana-Lucia continues to live separately from the other survivors. |
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Information
and image taken from:
ABC's Lost Site and Wikipedia.org |
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