Latina It Girl Branches Out

With three movies out this spring and her music album slated for July, it's clear why Roselyn Sanchez is one of Premiere's "It" actresses of 2003. She's an uptight lawyer in Chasing Papi, a sexy cruise-ship dancer in Boat Trip and a butch army ranger in Basic. The 33-year-old Puerto Rican says she's just relieved her roles finally require her to act.

"I don't want to be just the sexy Latina," sighs Sanchez, who got her big break as an FBI agent in Rush Hour 2. Still, she's up front about why her options have been limited. "I have a problem getting rid of my accent in English," she admits. "I've been here [in America] for nine years, and still have an accent."

You'd think rolling Rs and lilting vowels wouldn't be a problem in a flick like Papi, where she plays a scorned Latina lawyer. However, since 20th Century Fox didn't want the film's dialogue to exclude non-Hispanic moviegoers, she says, "I think we looped almost the whole film!"

Right now, Sanchez has her fingers crossed that she'll be back for Rush Hour 3. "I'm committed to them, so hopefully they're committed to me!" she exclaims. "In every movie, they've brought in a new girl. In the second movie, they followed me to New York, so I am going to be in it, but I don't know how big [my part] will be."