Grand Theft Auto Star Carolina Ravassa Shares Swimsuit Photo From Trinidad

1. Artistic Parents

Ravassa has been involved in entertainment since she was a child. “I was born and raised in Cali, Colombia and was lucky enough to have incredibly artistic parents who encouraged and nurtured our artistic side,” she says. “Me and my two sisters loved painting, acting, being crafty and doing things a little bit differently. Because of this, I started acting when I was five years old, and I’ve never stopped. I didn’t act professionally, but I knew it was what I was most passionate about so I kept auditioning for all the school plays and loved being a part of them. I like to say I didn’t choose acting, it chose me. I moved on to study theater at Boston College and started really understanding what it was all about. I then moved to NYC to continue my studies in film and TV, and ended up staying for ten years!”

2. Video Games Becoming Mainstream

Ravassa is thrilled at how videogames have become so popular worldwide. “Video games have expanded, they’ve become more mainstream: we have 30 million players all over the world thanks to the internet,” she says. “We are diverse, so people in the Middle East and Australia are playing the same game you guys are playing here. I think that because it’s become a world phenomenon, that’s why it’s blown up. This is my personal take on it — I haven’t done studies on gaming or anything, and I’m very new to the gaming industry — but we’re all [saying], how the heck did this happen? We didn’t expect any of this.”

3. Inspired By Robin Williams

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Ravassa was inspired by legendary actors to go into voice work. “Since I was young I fell in love with Robin Williams because he did films and he also voiced animated characters,” she says. “The Genie and Batty Koda were my absolute favorites. Somewhere along the way I forgot about cartoons and was just pursuing theater and on-camera work. I love that video games brought me back to voice acting because all of a sudden this whole voice career opened up for me and I feel so grateful for it. I have a knack for badass chicks with guns, so I have played quite a few of them for video games and now I understand that world so much better!”

4. Overwatch Diversity

Ravassa is proud of the cast diversity in the game Overwatch. “A lot of the voice actors are very close to their characters in ethnicity, nationality, or race, so I think that because we feel these characters represent such a variety of people in the world, we feel very proud to be a part of this game,” she says. “I [also] think that as actors who are very interested in diversity and the importance of it in the media, we also have connected and shared this common goal.”

5. Making Her Own Luck

Ravassa believes all the luck in the world can’t replace hard work. “I’ve definitely been lucky to have met certain people along the way that have helped me or recommended me for future jobs,” she says. “But I also believe that luck has to be met with talent, hard work and timing. When these people have wanted to help me, I have a great voice demo to back up my talent, or it just happens to be the perfect time for that one role they were looking for. I think it’s about being open to the possibilities of what the universe can offer you, and rolling with the punches.”

1. No Sugar

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Rodriguez avoids sugar and tries to live a balanced lifestyle when it comes to health and wellness. "Beauty starts inside and if you have a horrible diet or you have horrible sleeping habits or you're a smoker or you drink a lot, then you need to balance that out with spa life and other things like that,” she says. “I go for lots of water, lots of vegetables. I try to keep it clean as much as possible. [Sugar is] a killer, man. But it's nasty, it's disgusting. It just sits in your body and accumulates all these nasty yeasts and things.”

2. Low-Key Beauty

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Rodriguez keeps it simple when it comes to her beauty routine. "I cover my blemishes when I go out on the town with some tea tree oil to disinfect them, and then I'll put on an oil-free cover up under my eyes if I didn't sleep,” she says. “After that I will apply a little lip stain on the cheeks (if I've neglected my weekly vitamin intake) for a fresh complexion. I'll put a little mascara, but that sums it up. I'm not much of a beauty queen but I do believe the advice worth giving is maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Skin and body issues are usually a representation of bodily imbalances."

3. Not Into the Hollywood Lifestyle

Rodriguez is not interested in the glamorous trappings of the entertainment industry. “I enjoy vanity like the best of them. But I can’t stick to any of that lifestyle for too long because, when its true colors come out, it’s empty and cold and soulless,” she says. “So I have to travel and go find some real people. After Cannes every year, I end up going to some foreign country I’ve never been to before and introducing myself to a new religion—I’ll go to Bali and research Hinduism, or I’ll go to Thailand and get another tattoo from [Thai tattoo artist] Ajarn Noo [Kanpai].”

4. Action Movie Roles

Rodriguez loves playing action movie characters. “Like I’ve always felt like a lot of the work that I’ve done has been kind of a hyper masculinized version of femininity,” she says. “And it’s because action movies were the only place where I could go to be free from being the girlfriend or the girl who’s crying over some guy and the guy’s everything. The only way I could get away from that was making action movies. And it’s taken me a while to figure out where the femininity is in that because, you know, to exert any kind of strength or freedom, it’s usually a physical fight or some sort of brute force. And I really don’t think that that is the true now that I’m older essence of strength, of femininity.”

5. Fast & Furious Pride

Rodriguez is thrilled at how the Fast & Furious franchise has grown, with more female roles. "We've grown so much in the last 18 years, and it's all of us, we're in it together," she says. "It's cool that they were open enough to change and to evolve with the times... I really think that 9 is doing some justice for all the girls. I'm really proud of each and every woman in F9."

1. Diving Training

Raymonde went through intense training for her role in Deep Blue Sea 3. “I got PADI certified before we flew out, then trained with the Frog Squad in Cape Town,” she says. “We rehearsed a lot of the diving sequences before we shot, especially the underwater fight scenes, some of which were pretty tricky (clearing a full face mask underwater isn’t easy). It was winter in South Africa, so the water was freezing. Some puppets were used, but mostly the ‘sharks’ on set were tennis balls on sticks.”

2. Shark Lover

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Raymonde gained a real appreciation for sharks while staying in Cape Town. I made a bet with director John Pogue that we’d go cage diving in Cape Town before we started shooting (he agreed) but there was so much training involved before cameras rolled and I think there was a small concern I may get eaten before we started,” she says. “Climate change is killing sharks at a more accelerated rate than any other time in history. Their home like ours is under attack. This is a big deal!”

3. Los Angeles Native

Raymonde loves shopping and eating in her home town of Los Angeles. “I grew up in West LA,” she says. “I remember the old Santa Monica Place with nostalgia (they had an indoor waterfall in the food court) so I typically go to the mall and complain about how much nicer it used to be. Jonathan Adler has nice expensive things for the house, though! La Petite Porte is very romantic. I’m Corsican and I heard it’s owned by Corsicans although this may or may not be true. You can order a cheese plate at the bar and pretend you have a reservation.”

4. Improvisation Scenes

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Raymonde says playing convicted killer Jodi Arias was a challenge, as they had to film while the actual trial was happening. “I kind of liked it. I do remember that we did some improvisation,” she says. “The trial parts were the parts that we had so much of almost exact footage to base it on. There was so much coverage and close ups of her on the stand, and some of the dialogue was word for word what she said when she was on the stand with the prosecutor. That wasn’t too tough. That was crazy, though. She’d be on TV every night and the next day, I’m sitting in the same courthouse wearing the same outfit saying the same line she said yesterday on live TV. It was a trip.”

5. Life In Corsica

Raymonde loves the lifestyle when she visits family in Corsica. “No day is complete without a stop at a café for a drink before dinner,” she says, showing a picture of a cocktail. “This one’s my favorite, it’s water flavored with Licorice and Mint, and it’s the prettiest color. My Mom’s miniature Schnauzer approves (though he might be color blind.) And finally, dinner — which starts late and ends very late. Some delicious cheeses to end the meal with fresh green tomato jelly, scraps for the family pup, and a beautiful view of the Place at night.”