Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was born to Lydia Perez (a merchant marine) in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Rosie is Puerto Rican. Rosie has graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood in Queens, New York. Then, she attended Los Angeles City College. Rosie Perez, who was in her second college year she was planning to relocate to New York. She was invited to a leaving party by her fellow students. When Spike Lee proposed that she take part in his movie Do the Right Thing (1989), she agreed. This was her first major acting role. In Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) she was the role of support Carla Rodrigo, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Artistress. (She was defeated by Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). A lot of the criticism I got early in my career came coming from the Latin community. I remember them taking me out for lunch and saying to me "Can you take lessons to help you tone down the accent?" Or, "When it's a talk show, how could you not be so funny? People were so critical of my voice that they dealt me a lot to be angry about. My voice was something I couldn't bear to change. As I got older, the octaves fell and I am grateful for that. It's a matter of getting past your fears. It's about fighting for yourself. Floyd Mayweather could be punched or swung clean down his middle and he'd not hesitate. And I can understand what he's doing. (Who has mentioned Don Cornelius's fascination with her dancing] Don Cornelius was not interested in seeing me actually dance. I was doing hip-hop, which was not a style that was familiar to Californians. They were only acquainted with popping and locking. So hip-hop dancing wasn't something they would like to learn. Don was thinking, "No. You're an attractive girl. I was like, "What? This is really weird. It was really weird.