Michelle Rodriguez has been captivating and thrilling audiences since making her cinematic debut in the critically acclaimed film, Girlfight (2000). Since landing the role, Rodriguez has become a legend in the world of action and fantasy, building an impressive resumé in blockbuster franchises such as Avatar, Resident Evil, and of course The Fast and the Furious.
In many ways, Michelle Rodriguez has become synonymous with the fearless action heroines she often portrays. If you were caught in a movie with her, she would be the one saving you, not the other way around. And so, it was no surprise to find that she is involved with Ubisoft’s latest title, the high-octane pirate action-adventure, Skull and Bones.
The swashbuckling third person open-world game, which is ten years in the making, is prepared to set sail on February 16, 2024. Rodriguez was given the chance to play an early access version of this new voyage, and she also hosted the first episode of the Skull and Bones podcast, Gangsters of the Seas, discussing the history of the infamous pirates who used to haunt the Indian Ocean.
I had the great pleasure of getting to talk to Rodriguez about her time with Skull and Bones, and some of her favorite aspects of Ubisoft’s upcoming endeavor. Her enthusiasm for this sea faring adventure certainly has me excited for the release, so please enjoy this passionate interview.
Thank you for taking the time to talk with FandomWire, can you tell me about your experience getting to play an early version of Skull and Bones?
It’s really cool, man. I mean, it really dives deep. You can go so far with it. But, I mean, the world is so vast. It seems like the entire Indian Ocean is at your fingertips eventually, once you get through the world-building aspect of it. I mean, not world-building, but world-roaming, I guess. It’s just cool that you can pick your own characters, you can modify them, you build your own ships. Eventually, you earn enough notoriety to really build your own ships. The cannons you can modify, the furniture on the ship you can modify to increase the power of your cannons, to enhance the protection mechanism of the hull of your ship.
Also, you can even shoot cannons to heal other people that you’re playing with. You can discover sea monsters, you can discover ghost ships, there’s all sorts of hidden treasures everywhere throughout the island. I like the way you can modify yourself throughout the process. I mean, you know, after earning all of that mack daddy stuff, it really is a shame when you get shot down because you start from scratch. But it is quite awesome. Once you get the hang of it, you’re just like, whoa, the possibilities are endless. I could spend hours on this thing.
Skull and Bones was announced over six years ago and has been in development for ten years, do you think it has been worth the wait?
Absolutely. I can see why it has been in development for such a long time. When you take a look at the map as to where you start, and you will eventually go online and see whoever got ahead of you, and how big the map actually is, you’re just like, what the heck? Did you guys want to build out the entire Indian Ocean? Or like, were you just, what’s going on here? There’s just so much to explore, it seems like it doesn’t end. You know what I mean? Yeah, it goes on. It goes on for a lot. It’s like, I became overwhelmed just with the options. It’s like being at a store, and then you look, and you want something to drink, but there’s like 50,000 different drinks, and you just don’t know. You’re kind of at a loss for what you wanted in the first place because you’re overwhelmed by all the possibilities.
While it was a bit overwhelming, were you able to narrow down some of your favorite features from the game?
What stuck out to me the most is the ship gameplay, the ship versus ship gameplay. I think that that’s what the game is mostly geared towards, and I realize that you can modify your ship in ways that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a video game do before. But then again, I’ve never played military ship games before, but it feels very much like that. Like, you build up your ship, it’s so customizable. The capabilities of protecting your hull, the capabilities of enhancing your cannons, the capabilities of increasing the speed of your ship, or designing your ship to be more of a carrier than a speed demon. Because, like I told you, the cannons can heal other people in your crew.
So, it seems to me like the gameplay here is going to be most exciting when you’re online. When you’re online and you’re up against the rest of the world while you’re all sailing in the Indian Sea in your customized ships. It’s going to be like, it’s on. Because, you can outrun them before they take you down and knowing what’s at stake is the most, I think the biggest skin in the game is the fact that you have to build it from scratch. You start as a nobody, you know what I mean? You work your way to having some notoriety. And of course, you’re going to want to protect that as much as you can before being attacked. And knowing that when you’re online, it’s like people just love attacking for no reason. They’re like, oh shit, target. And so all that work that you put in, man, you better be good.
As someone who has done voice work for video games, does it change your perspective when playing them?
Oh, dude, you know, if there’s something I’m really grateful for, that I never lost that kid in me, so when I’m sitting in the movie theater I’m really watching the movie, unless it sucks. Then I’m thinking about the actors and the voices, but for the most part I’m really good at going back to the little girl and, and hanging out in front of the screen, playing video games or sitting and watching a film with those fresh eyes. Like I never lost that. And I’m grateful for it.
I think it has helped me survive in the industry because I think a lot of people can become jaded after doing this for long periods of time. But yeah, I never lost that so I’m super grateful. But yeah, when a movie or video game does suck, I’d start thinking about the production. It’s not very often, cause I don’t like to play crappy games. Or watch crappy movies. I watch the trailer and I can kind of tell.
Occasionally, if a movie is so bad, it can be kind of fun to watch if you’re making fun of it. But otherwise…
Yeah haha. Yeah. I could think of a few of those. I would never say them out loud, but I could think of a few.
That’s very fair. So, what is your history with gaming and what are some of your favorite titles?
My history with gaming started with Atari and ColecoVision and then worked its way up to the Nintendos of the world and the Sega Genesis of the world. I was a big fighter game player when I was a kid. And it changed from the Tekkens and the Street Fighters and the Mortal Kombats into more first man shooters.
And then, I was never really big into the world explorer games as much when I was younger. Then Assassin’s Creed came along and I really got into that. Resident Evilwas a big one for me. I really loved that game. I’m really enjoying Avatar. I like the Harry Potter that came out as far as those world explorer games go. But for the most part throughout the years I’ve been more of a first man shooter, Call of Duty, Tom Clancy, fan.
Who would be on your crew if you were the captain of your own ship?
If I was a captain of my own ship, I would need me some muscle. I would need me some muscle to handle anything on the ground when we make it to land, in case people try to take us down. Then I would need intelligence. I would need a scientist on board. I need somebody who understands a design, who can fix things up as they go wrong, so an engineer is definitely super important.
And that muscle again is very important to protect that engineer because I know he doesn’t have the muscle to protect himself. So also, a couple wenches, you know because they’re really good, beautiful wenches. I could use spies, who can go and woo the guy who has the biggest ship and get information on how to take them down. Then I’d need at least one really good ninja, just a really good sneaky person who’s good at sneaking on ships undetected.
How was your experience hosting the Skull and Bones Podcast, Gangsters of the Sea?
That was an education man. I had no idea there was a wild wild west in the Indian Ocean. It was sick. And the Caribbean I mean, my God, the stuff that went on there bro. It was gnarly. It was literally like every man for himself and everything’s up for grabs, and no rules, no holds barred, the 300 mile law. It’s pretty wild. I obviously wasn’t born into that world and so looking at it now I understand why the military has presence in all four oceans. You kind of gotta settle this whole situation before we can move forward.
And I also realize, I remember going to Djibouti with Jim Cameron and the Avatar team. We went to go visit the troops over there and I remember being astounded at how many different representatives from the military from different countries there were in this one place. I was like I couldn’t believe that the entire world was in the horn of Africa.
The entire world. There was Japan, China had representatives there, there were people from Australia, there were people from Europe, UK, It was insane. Middle eastern representatives. It was like everybody and their mother was protecting the ships that go through up into the Red Sea, and I was like “Oh so this is still going on it’s still all up for grabs on the ocean huh?” Pretty wild.
That’s incredibly fascinating. Before you have to go is there anything I haven’t asked about that you would like readers to know?
I think this game’s gonna be a good one man. It’s gonna be chock full of surprises. I’m kind of excited, I didn’t get to check out you know the sea monsters and the ghost ships, but I’m kind of stoked to figure that out when the game comes out or play it in beta at least.
Skull and Bones’ Open Beta will be available February 8-11 with cross-play and cross-progression on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S as well as Windows PC through the Epic Games Store and the Ubisoft Store.
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