Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was born to Lydia Perez (a merchant marine) in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Rosie is Puerto Rican. Rosie graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood in Queens, New York. After that, she was enrolled in Los Angeles City College. Rosie Perez was in her second year at college and about to move back to New York from Los Angeles. She was invited to a leaving party by her peers. She accepted Spike Lee's offer to work in his film Do the Right Thing (1989). It would be her first major acting role. In Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) She played the supporting character Carla Rodrigo, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Artist. (She was defeated by Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). In my early days, the Latin community was responsible for much of the criticism I was subjected to. They would take me out to lunch and say, "Can I go and take some lessons to reduce my accent?" Also, "When you're on a talk show, how can you not be less humorous and loud?". People gave me so much negative feedback about my voice and I even tried. It was my voice that I didn't want to change. Thank God, my octaves decreased as aged. It's a matter of pushing past your fears. It's about fighting your own. Floyd Mayweather could get punched by a straight punch in the middle, right to his face and he wouldn't flinch. It's a good thing I understand what he's doing. (Who talked about Don Cornelius watching her dancingthe dance]: Don Cornelius didn't want to watch me dance. I was performing hip hop that was unfamiliar to Californians. They were accustomed to popping and locking. So hip-hop dancing wasn't something they wanted to learn. Don was as if, "No. You're one of us. I thought, "What? It's really bizarre. This is really strange.