The Fast and Furious franchise is one of the most famous in Hollywood, with twelve internationally popular movies. And although every now and then new characters have been introduced to the films throughout the years to keep the storyline fresh and diverse, the original crew always hit different.
Michelle Rodriguez
However, one of the members from the original cast of the franchise, Michelle Rodriguez otherwise known as Letty Ortiz in the movies, was on the verge of saying goodbye to the Fast and Furious films for good because of a particular story arc that her character was supposed to go through.

Michelle Rodriguez almost didn’t play Letty in The Fast and the Furious 

Vin Diesel‘s intimidating Dominic Toretto and Michelle Rodriquez’s witty Letty Ortiz started off as a power couple right from the very first movie, The Fast and the Furious. The two were seen enduring all kinds of ups and downs together and were even forced to part ways temporarily lest the police catch Dom and incarcerate him.

However, the original storyline of the film was pitched in a very different way to the actors, wherein Letty was actually supposed to cheat on Dominic with his best friend, Brian O’Conner, the character who was played by the late Paul Walker. And Rodriguez couldn’t stand that at all.

 
Letty Ortiz

Back in 2017, the Resident Evil actress opened up about the same in an interview with Daily Beast as she admitted to almost quitting the movie because of the hiccup in the plot where Letty cheated on Dom. The 44-year-old was completely against the idea and even broke down into tears at the mere prospect of it all.
“I basically cried and said, I’m going to quit and, ‘Don’t sue me, please — I’m sorry, but I can’t do this in front of millions of people.’ My whole point in being an actress is that I thought I got to live a dream. And I don’t dream about being a slut! Do you?!”
Fortunately enough for the fans, it was Vin Diesel who ensured that Rodriguez remained in the team as one of the star cast, and defended her ideology against the love triangle between their characters and that of Walker.

Vin Diesel ensured that Michelle Rodriguez didn’t leave the franchise

It turns out that Rodriguez wasn’t the only one who disapproved of Letty cheating on Dom, as Mark Sinclair, popularly known as Vin Diesel, shared the same notion as hers with regard to that particular aspect of the plot.
“Vin was the first one to pull me to the side while I was crying, and he just looked at me and said, ‘I got your back. Chill out and let me handle this, and you’re right — it makes me look bad anyway.’ And there you go. That was the beginning of the Letty fairytale.” 
 
Vin Diesel as Dom and Michelle Rodriguez as Letty
So, not only did the Riddick actor help Rodriguez scrap out that infamous idea from the storyline, but he was also one of the major reasons behind the S.W.A.T. actress not leaving the film’s franchise, thereby bestowing fans with two of the most brilliant characters in the movies with just as captivating background stories. And let’s not forget just how perfect Letty and Dom were together!

The Fast and Furious movies are available for streaming on HBO Max.