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ROSARIO DAWSON

From a New York stoop to Hollywood superstar.
September 2005

Published in ::

Falling Into Fame

WORDS BY PIERRE DE VILLIERS

Native New Yorker Rosario Dawson is relishing her role as an accidental star and Hollywood’s latest honey.

By the age of 15, Rosario Dawson had her life all mapped out. A love of the ocean and its creatures had inspired the gangly New York City teenager to enroll in an alternative school and study marine biology. With dreams of finding and tagging Nemo swimming around in her head, Rosie Dawson would sit on the stoop of her home on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the mid-’90s and look forward to becoming a sea explorer. Then, in a matter of minutes, everything changed. Director Larry Clark happened to be passing by one day, spotted the daydreaming teenager and immediately cast her in his controversial 1995 film Kids. It was a fateful encounter that has taught Dawson, now a bona fide movie star, to revel in the unpredictability of life.

“When I started off, I wasn’t thinking about acting,” she smiles, at 26 looking every bit the big-screen icon, “which is probably why I’m enjoying being an actress so much. It’s a crazy life, and I love it.”

Dawson’s rise to fame has not been run-of-the-mill. After an eye-catching performance as Ruby in Kids, she opted out of her college plans and decided to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute.

Director Spike Lee liked what he saw and cast her in his 1998 film, He Got Game. Many expected Dawson’s major breakthrough role to be just around the corner, but instead of chasing the mighty dollar in big-budget blockbusters, she honed her skills in small-time films, mostly set in the Big Apple. There was the little-seen Side Streets, featuring a series of vignettes depicting life in N ew York City; hostage drama Light It Up; and risible romantic comedy Down to You. When Dawson finally got her big break in 2001, it was a mixed blessing. Josie and the Pussycats, a satire poking fun at the music industry, promised a lot but failed to deliver. When promoting the film, however, Dawson’s playful personality and straight talking charm were there for all to see. Asked by a journalist how her Josie and the Pussycats doll would get along with Barbie, she replied: “It’s probably going to kick her butt, steal her clothes and wind up stealing Ken.”

As Dawson’s profile grew, so did the list of big-name directors and actors who wanted to work with her. After starring in more low-budget fare, including Sidewalks of New York, Trigger Happy and Chelsea Walls, Men In Black II, met up with Dawson played opposite Will Smith inSpike Lee again for 25th Hour, traveled to outer space with Eddie Murphy (who gave her free guitar lessons) in The Adventures of Pluto and had an epic encounter in Oliver Stone’s Alexander. The fact that the last two movies on that list bombed hasn’t stopped Dawson from taking a chance on what she believes is unusual material or working with people who are less than predictable. It comes as little surprise, then, to hear that she went out of her way to work with visionary director Robert Rodriguez.

“My mother and I accosted Robert at the Once Upon a Time in Mexico premier in New York,” Dawson, who is of Puerto Rican, Cuban, African American, Irish and Native American decent, remembers. “We are huge fans, and she jumped on him and said: ‘My daughter Rosario absolutely loves you. You must put her in a movie.’ He was like: ‘Yeah, tell her to call me, the next role is hers.’”

Rodriguez stayed true to his word, and the part he offered her was a doozy: the bloodthirsty Gail in graphic novel adaptation Sin City

. Based on the work of Frank Miller, the film—telling a series of extremely bloody tales all set in a crime

-ridden metropolis—is a visual masterpiece, whose scenes were lifted almost panel-for-panel from the comic-book series.

“I was so excited. My uncle Gus is a comic-book artist, and we had been talking about it,” Dawson enthuses. “[The big-screen adaptation of Sin City] had been talked about for a long time but hadn’t been touched for a particular reason—Frank Miller had written this script and given it to producers, but he then pulled it because they weren’t going to get it right. And then Robert [Rodriguez] took it to another place. He is a remarkable talent.”

Being a fan of the graphic novel, Dawson was well aware that, as Gail, leader of the hookers who run Sin City’s Old Town, she would have to squeeze her shapely figure into the sort of outfit that would make most women blush.

“The costume was interesting—there wasn’ t a whole lot of it,” she says, cackling. “But when I started, it was obvious that they were stickin g very closely to Frank’s graphic novels. And once you put that outfit on, all the movements really come to you, because it was a very posy character. I chopped my hair off for it, I did the strut, and it really worked. You know, once you put the outfit on, with those high heels, you kind of have to do that strut.”

In fact, the only person who was worried about the revealing costume was Rodriguez, who, after seeing Dawson tucking into some hearty fatty food while shooting in Texas, became concerned that she wouldn’t be able to fit into the tight leather outfit.

“We were in Austin, and we would go off and have this big brisket slathered in barbecue sauce,” she recalls. “Robert would look over and go, ‘maybe that wasn’t the smartest thing to do...’ and I was like, ‘oh, don’t worry, I’ll loosen a buckle.’”

Dawson’s laissez faire attitude has landed her in far more trouble than a good-natured slap on the wrist for not watching what she eats. In 2004, while filming This Revolution, the actress ended up spending 12 hours in jail after joining protesters outside the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden in New York. Director Stephen Marshall thought it would be a good idea to use the protest as a backdrop for his movie, which focuses on a band of anarchists. Dawson gladly went along with the plan, only to be arrested and wrongfully accused of disorderly conduct.

“I’ve definitely been privy to seeing a lot of police riots, growing up on the Lower East S ide. So, it was the worry of hoping that it wouldn’t turn out to be violent—which it wasn’t,” she says, talking about the ordeal. “I mean it was a very tense time. It was on the Sunday of the beginning of the protests, and no one had any idea what was going to go down. It could have been a very, very violent time in New York history, and it wasn’t. But there were people being held for 30 hours in jail. So, for me personally, I didn’t really have the bad experience.

Once the authorities figured out that Dawson was acting and not protesting, all charges were dropped. Her brush with the law made celebrity news headlines, however, and paparazzi and tabloid journalists started circling with renewed vigor. The press pestering is likely to continue, thanks in part to Dawson’s choice of boyfriend—actor Jason Lewis, who played Samantha’s boyfriend Smith Jerrod in “Sex and the City.” So far, she’s taking the extra attention that comes with being part of a celebrity couple in her stride.

“It helps dating someone who is in the acting world,” Dawson says, “but especially to have someone who is so energetic and wants to travel and try all sorts of things. I like being with someone who likes the good stuff about being in this industry. You have a lot of time that you miss each other, and then the time that you have with each other can be special. He is one of those people that I love to have special time with.”

The happy couple might have to get used to their relationship being a largely long-distance one, with Dawson’s schedule as packed as ever. Fans will soon be able to see her playing Mimi in the big-screen version of the popular stage show Rent, which charts a year in the life of a bohemian group of friends living in modern-day New York’s East Village, due out later this fall. “No one else should play Mimi. I grew up in a squat in the Lower East Side. I was like, ‘It’s my role!’” she says.

As Dawson chats excitedly about the parts she loves playing, it becomes difficult to see her as a woman who fell into acting by chance. The fact that someone initially so nonplussed about being an actress has achieved so much is an irony she is all too aware of. “I started off when I was 15 and sitting on my porch, and now I am playing a character with a machine gun and handcuffs in Sin City” she says. “It’s been an interesting ride, I hav e to say.”

Of course, the journey is far from over for Dawson with her blend of sass and sincerity more in demand in Hollywood than ever before. And, as always, the New York City girl will take things as they come, knowing full well that fate has always been a good friend to her.

© Getty © Rex Features © Celebrity Pictures

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