Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was the daughter of Lydia Perez, a merchant marine, and Ismael Serano. She was born in Bushwick Brooklyn, New York City. Rosie is Puerto Rican. Rosie graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood in Queens, New York. Later, she enrolled at Los Angeles City College. Rosie Perez was in her second year at college and was just about to move back to New York from Los Angeles. Her friends had given her an event to celebrate. The moment Spike Lee proposed that she be part of his film Do the Right Thing (1989), she said yes. It was her first acting experience in a major role. In Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) the actress played the supporting character Carla Rodrigo, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Artistess. (She lost to Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993).) A lot of the critique I received early on in my career came coming from the Latin community. They would go out for lunch and say, "Can you go and get some lessons to improve your accent?". Or, "When it's a talk show, how do you not be funny? Many people gave me crap about my voice, and I tried. It was my voice that I was not willing to alter. My octaves slowed as I grew older thank goodness. It's about conquering your fears. It's about being strong. Floyd Mayweather could be punched. A straight punch right in the middle of his face. He's not blinking. And I can understand what he's doing. [Who mentioned Don Cornelius's fascination with her dancing] Don Cornelius was not interested in seeing me actually dance. I was dancing hip-hop and it was not a style that was familiar to Californians. They were only aware of locking and popping, therefore they were not keen on hip-hop dancing. Don was as if, "No, no, no. You're a girl. I was like "What?" This is truly bizarre. It's really bizarre.