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 of college and was about to relocate back to New York from Los Angeles. Her friends had brought her an occasion to celebrate her departure. The moment Spike Lee proposed that she be part of his film Do the Right Thing (1989), she agreed. This would be her first major acting part. Then she was nominated to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Carla Rodrigo (Peter Weir’s Fearless, 1993). (She lost to Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). At the beginning of my career, the Latin community was the source of the majority of the criticism I was subjected to. I can remember being taken out for lunch and saying to me "Can you attend lessons to lessen the accent?" or, "When it's a talk show, how are you going to not be so funny? My voice was a constant critic. I tried to alter it. Though I attempted to alter my voice, it was not the way I spoke. Thank God, my octaves diminished as I got older. Boxing is about taking on your biggest fears. It's about staying strong. Floyd Mayweather could be punched or swung clean across his middle and he'd never hesitate. It's a good thing I understand the way he's performing. The person who spoke about Don Cornelius watching her dancingThen he said: Don Cornelius didn't want to watch me dance - I was dancing hip hop which was a new concept to Californians. They knew only about popping and locking, so they were not keen on hip-hop dancing. Don was as if, "No, no, no. You're a girl." I thought, What? This is a bit bizarre. This is truly bizarre.