Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City she was the daughter of Lydia Perez and Ismael Serrano, a merchant marine. She is of Puerto Rican descent. Rosie has graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood in Queens, New York. Then, she attended Los Angeles City College. Rosie Perez was in her second year of college, and just about to move back to New York from Los Angeles. She was invited to a leaving party by her peers. She accepted the invitation from Spike Lee to work in his 1989 film Do the Right Thing (1989). This would be her first big acting role. In Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) she played the part of Carla Rodrigo, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Artistess. (She was defeated by Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). In my early days, the Latin community was the source of the majority of the criticism I was subjected to. They would invite me to lunch and ask me, "Can I go and take some lessons to reduce my accent?" Or, "When you're on a talk show, how can you not be less funny and loud?". I received a lot of crap about my voice, and I tried. It was my voice I didn't want to change. My octaves decreased when I got older, which is a good thing. Boxing is all about taking on your biggest fears. It's more about fighting yourself. Floyd Mayweather could be punched. A straight shot in his middle. He's not blinking. I understand the way he's doing. The person who spoke about Don Cornelius watching her dancingthe dance]: Don Cornelius didn't want to see me dance - I was performing hip hop that was unfamiliar to Californians. They were only familiar with locking and popping, so hip-hop dancing wasn't something they were looking to master. Don was thinking, "No. You're a woman. I was like"What? This is really weird. Then I was required to dance in high heels, and I had never danced in high heels before, and I was wearing this little tiny small dress, and it's getting up my thigh and I'm like Oh my God!