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 attended Grover Cleveland High School, Ridgewood, Queens, New York. Then she enrolled at Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez, who was in her second college year was about to move to New York. Her friends had invited her to an occasion to celebrate her departure. Spike Lee offered her a role in his 1989 film Do the Right Thing (1989). She accepted. This would be her first major role as an actor. She went on play the supporting character of Carla Rodrigo in Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) which was for which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. (She was defeated by Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). The majority of the criticism I received early in my career was from the Latin community. They would invite me to lunch and tell me, "Can you go and learn to lower your accent?". Or, "When you're on a talk show, how can you not be less outrageous and loud?". My voice was a constant source of criticism. I tried to alter it. I tried my best to alter my voice, but it was the way I spoke. My octaves slowed as I grew up, thank goodness. Boxing is about taking on your biggest fears. It's about being strong. Floyd Mayweather could get punched in a straight shot down the middle, right to his face - and he'd be adamant about it. And I'm sure of what he's doing. [Who spoke about Don Cornelius watching her dancingThen he said: Don Cornelius didn't want to see me dance - I was doing hip-hop which was a new concept to Californians. They were only aware of locking and popping, therefore they were not keen on hip-hop dancing. Don was like, "No, no, no. You're female. I thought"What? It's so bizarre. This is truly bizarre.