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. She is Puerto Rican. Rosie was educated at Grover Cleveland High School, Ridgewood, Queens, New York. She later enrolled at Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez was just starting her second year of college and was scheduled to return to New York. Her friends had thrown her celebrations. She accepted the invitation from Spike Lee to be part of his film Do the Right Thing (1989). This would be her first major role as an actor. She was then nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her part as Carla Rodrigo (Peter Weir’s Fearless, 1993). She was defeated by Anna Paquin, for The Piano (1993). In my early days, the Latin community was the source of most of the criticism I received. I can remember people taking me out to lunch and saying to me "Can you attend lessons to tone down the accent?" or, "When it's a talk show, how could you not be so funny? People gave me so much crap about my voice, and I tried. I did my best to change however it was my voice that I used to speak. As I grew older, the octaves dropped thanks to God. It's about getting past your fears. Boxing is all about fighting for yourself. Floyd Mayweather could be punched or swung clean in the middle of his body, and he wouldn’t hesitate. I can understand what he's doing. (Who spoke about Don Cornelius watching her dancein the dance]: Don Cornelius did not want to see how I really performed - I was dancing hip-hop, which was unfamiliar to the people of California. They had no idea about hip-hop dancing, and only knew about locking and popping. Don was as "No No, no. You're female. I thought "What?" It's so bizarre. It was really strange.