Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City and was the daughter of Lydia Perez and Ismael Serrano who was a merchant marine. Rosie is Puerto Rican. Rosie attended Grover Cleveland High School, Ridgewood, Queens, New York. She later began her studies at Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez was in her second year of college, and was just about to move back to New York from Los Angeles. She was invited to a leaving celebration by her classmates. The moment Spike Lee proposed that she work in his film Do the Right Thing (1989), she said yes. It would be her first big acting job. She went on play the character of Carla Rodrigo in Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) in which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. (She was defeated by Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). The Latin community was at the center for the majority of my critique early in my career. They would take me out to lunch and ask, "Can I go and learn some lessons so that I can lessen my accent?" Or "Can you be funny and loud when you're on a talk show?" I received a lot of crap about my voice, and I even tried. I really did try to change however it was my way of speaking. My octaves slowed when I got older, thank goodness. It's about taking on your fears head-on. It's about fighting your own. Floyd Mayweather could get punched by a straight punch in the middle of his face - and he wouldn't flinch. I know the way he's performing. (Who talked about Don Cornelius watching her dancingand observing her dancing]: Don Cornelius didn't want to watch me dance - I was performing hip hop which was a new concept to Californians. They only knew about locking and popping, which is why they were not interested in hip-hop dancing. Don was as if, "No. You're a girl." I was like, "What? It's very bizarre. It was really weird.