Rosario Dawson through the years

How can we start anywhere other than the 1995 film “Kids”? Not only was it Rosario Dawson’s career debut, but it also was an extremely controversial coming-of-age movie, as it dealt with and depicted the topics of sex, rape, HIV, drinking, drug use, theft and violence by contemporary teens in New York City. Reviews were mixed (with some critics calling it “borderline child pornography”), but “Kids” was generally lauded as a powerful and thought-provoking film. Dawson was given the role of Ruby after director Larry Clark and screenwriter Harmony Korine, looking for non-actors, discovered the teen on the front stoop of her family’s Manhattan apartment.

Controversy aside, “Kids” certainly got Rosario Dawson noticed, as her second film was Spike Lee’s 1998 basketball drama “He Got Game.” Alongside Denzel Washington, Ray Allen, John Turturro, Milla Jovovich, Jim Brown and Ned Beatty, Dawson held her own as Lala, the girlfriend of Allen’s basketball prodigy character. In fact, she did well enough to earn a role in another of Lee’s films — more on that later.

After some underwhelming roles in underperforming films, Dawson found her way back into the spotlight with a starring role as bassist Valerie Brown in the highly touted 2001 adaptation of the Archie Comics/Hanna-Barbera cartoon “Josie and the Pussycats.” Critics and fans alike were divided about the bubbly but ultimately brainless musical comedy; however, it was nevertheless fun and entertaining. Its $39 million budget was the largest of any film in which Dawson had appeared to date, and the role earned her a Choice Breakout Performance nomination at the Teen Choice Awards.

Sure, “Men in Black II” wasn’t critically acclaimed like its 1997 predecessor, but the 2002 sequel still managed to make a massive $440 million haul at the box office. Although Dawson didn’t get to play an MIB agent, she had a starring role as Laura, a waitress who is the love interest of Agent J (Will Smith) and turns out to be the keeper of the “Light of Zartha,” around which the whole film is based.

Rosario Dawson’s role in the 2002 sci-fi comedy “The Adventures of Pluto Nash” is only notable because the movie was such an enormous flop (it earned five Razzie nominations), a box office bomb ($7 million against a $100 million budget) and an omen of many bad films to come in the career of Eddie Murphy. Dawson, on the other hand, would fare much better after this hiccup.

An all-star cast of Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Pepper, Brian Cox and Anna Paquin was complemented by Rosario Dawson playing Naturelle, the girlfriend of Norton’s character, Monty, in the Spike Lee drama “25th Hour.” Monty is preparing to go to prison for a seven-year drug dealing sentence and, at one point in the film, suspects Naturelle of setting him up, adding further complexity to her role. “25th Hour” received positive reviews, brought in $24 million against a budget of $5 million and earned a Golden Bear nod at the Berlin International Film Festival.

“Alexander” was not a good movie. However, after playing Roxana in it, Rosario Dawson could at least cross “work with Oliver Stone” off her bucket list. And when we say “Alexander” wasn’t a good movie, we’re not just referring to the fact that critics hated it, historians trashed it and most audiences disapproved (even though they showed up to the cinemas in droves) because even Stone himself didn’t like the 2004 product. The director recut the film before it came out on DVD and then released a third version, called “Alexander Revisited: The Final Unrated Cut,” in 2007. Despite that terminal title, Stone released yet another version in 2014, which, to his credit, was the best received of the four.

Rosario Dawson had a role in “Sin City,” the 2005 adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Frank Miller, but so did Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Michael Clarke Duncan, Josh Hartnett, Michael Madsen, Brittany Murphy, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and Elijah Wood — to name just a fraction of the cast. In the segment titled “The Big Fat Kill,” Dawson played a prostitute named Gail who is caught up in the murder of a policeman and kidnapped by mercenaries. Praised for its successful ability to beautifully turn a dark graphic novel into an actual film noir, “Sin City” (which was directed by Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino) also earned some accolades for its cast, including a Best Acting Ensemble nod at the Critics’ Choice Awards. 

The 2005 Chris Columbus adaptation of the hit Broadway musical “Rent” wasn’t especially memorable, or critically acclaimed, or successful at the box office, but it’s noteworthy here because Rosario Dawson portrayed the major character of Mimi, which means she got to sing! Fans of the Broadway version were divided on their opinions of the movie, but most could (or should) agree that Dawson gave a strong performance in her role.

It took 12 years, but fans of Kevin Smith’s cult classic black-and-white comedy “Clerks” were finally gifted a sequel in 2006. “Clerks II” saw the return of Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson, Jason Mewes and Smith in the roles of Dante, Randal, Jay and Silent Bob, respectively, as well as the addition of Rosario Dawson as Dante’s love interest. Fans of the original were generally satisfied with the sequel, and it served as an introduction to the director’s universe for Dawson. She is slated to appear in Smith’s next film, “Jay and Silent Bob Reboot,” which was shot in just 21 days and is expected to be released later this year.

Rosario Dawson appeared in the aforementioned Robert Rodriguez film “Sin City” in 2005, and two years later she would appear in another of the director’s films...sort of. Although 2007’s “Grindhouse” was directed by both Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino, each director took one-half of the double feature, which also included “fake” trailers directed by Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth and Jason Eisener. Dawson played the character of Abernathy Ross in Tarantino’s “Death Proof” exploitation horror film but did not appear in Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror.” However, Dawson eventually reunited with Rodriguez for 2014’s “Sin City” sequel, “Sin City: A Dame to Die For.”

The 2007 thriller “Descent” didn’t receive much attention (managing a pathetic $15,233 at the box office), but it’s still notable for not only starring Rosario Dawson as the protagonist, Maya, but also featuring her as one of the film’s producers. “Descent” is the first of three producer credits currently owned by Dawson, although she’ll see four more titles added to that list this year: the documentaries “The Deported,” “Lost in America” and “The Need to Grow,” as well as the war drama “8000 Shots.”

The sci-fi series “Gemini Division” marked Rosario Dawson’s first major TV role as well as her first appearance on a web series. The NBC.com show was created by Brent V. Friedman and and developed by Dawson, who also serves as the show’s narrator. It aired for only one season, but that consisted of 50 episodes, although each one ran less than 10 minutes in length. Dawson played Det. Anna Diaz, an NYPD detective who stumbles upon a global conspiracy while investigating the murder of her fiance.

After first lending her voice to the video game “Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure” in 2006 and to a few minor “Robot Chicken” characters in 2007, Rosario Dawson scored her first acclaimed voice role in 2009, playing Artemis in the animated DC Universe/Warner Bros. movie “Wonder Woman.” Although released direct-to-video (a common occurrence in the comic world), the 74-minute superhero adventure earned $2 million in sales and owns an 82 percent freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes — which is even better than its 74 percent audience score! That same year Dawson would also voice a role in Rob Zombie’s cartoon comedy “The Haunted World of El Superbeasto” and would later appear in the video games “Syndicate” (2012), “Lego Dimensions” (2015), “Ratchet & Clank” (2016), “Dishonored 2” (2016), “Wilson’s Heart” (2017) and “Dishonored: Death of the Outsider” (2007).

A straight-up action movie based on a true story of a runaway train, “Unstoppable” stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson. The latter plays Connie, a railroad yardmaster tasked with halting the locomotive. Somewhat surprisingly, critics loved “Unstoppable” and praised director Tony Scott for his filmmaking. Drawing an impressive amount of interest, it also raked in $168 million in theaters.

Written, directed by and starring Chris Rock, “Top Five” features Rosario Dawson as a journalist interviewing Rock’s character, the comedic lead in a show about a cop in a bear suit who is trying to make it as a serious actor. Almost universally acclaimed, “Top Five” also earned three Critic’s Choice Award nominations for the film itself and each of its stars, Rock and Dawson. After debuting at the 2014 Toronto Film Festival, the comedy went on to earn $26 million at the box office against a relatively modest budget of $12 million.

After voicing Artemis in the 2009 “Wonder Woman” animated film, Rosario Dawson returned to the superhero genre in 2015 to portray Claire Temple/Night Nurse in the Netflix series “Daredevil.” She later reprised the character on the streaming service’s originals “Luke Cage,” “Iron Fist” and “The Defenders.” The first three shows have since been axed by Netflix, and the future doesn’t look bright for “The Defenders,” but Dawson nevertheless made her mark on the Marvel Universe over the last four years.

Although Rosario Dawson appeared in a "Wonder Woman" movie six years prior, 2015’s “Justice League: Throne of Atlantis” was the first time Dawson actually voiced Wonder Woman herself. Reviews were mixed for this particular installment, but Rosario would return to the role in 2016’s “Justice League: Teen Titans,” 2017’s “Justice League Dark,” 2018’s “The Death of Superman” and 2019’s “Reign of the Supermen,” with the latter three films receiving hefty praise.

Rosario Dawson certainly has a knack for voicing superheroes, as in the middle of her run as Wonder Woman (not to mention her aforementioned stints as Artemis and Claire Temple), she also voiced Batgirl in “The Lego Batman Movie.” This actually wasn’t Dawson’s first role as Batgirl, as she previously voiced the superhero in the video game “Lego Dimensions,” but it was her first time bringing Batgirl to the big screen. The Chris McKay film was an absolute success, as Rosario Dawson and co-stars Will Arnett, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Ralph Fiennes and Jenny Slate propelled the funny family-friendly film to a $312 million box office payday.

Aside from the “Gemini Division” web series, Rosario Dawson hasn’t had a run on a show that has lasted longer than her current stint on the CW comedy-drama “Jane the Virgin.” Dawson joined the cast in the Season 4 episode “Chapter Seventy-Two” as Jane “JR” Ramos, a hard-nosed attorney. JR remains the love interest of Petra, a major character, and is currently still appearing on the show’s fifth season.