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 in Ridgewood, Queens, New York She then went on to enroll in Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez, who was in her second year at college she was planning to relocate to New York. Her friends had given her a going-away party. She accepted Spike Lee's invitation to appear in his film Do the Right Thing (1989). It was her first major acting role. She went on play the supporting character Carla Rodrigo in Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) in which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. (She was defeated by Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993).) In the early years of my career my Latin community was the one responsible for my most of the negative feedback I was subjected to. I can remember being taken out for lunch and telling me "Can you attend lessons to lessen the accent?" or, "When it's a talk show, how could you not not be funny? My voice was a constant source of criticism. I attempted to alter it. It was my speech that I didn't want to change. As I grew older, the octaves fell, thank God. It's now a pleasure that a young person of 16 years old comes up and starts imitating me.Boxing is about overcoming your fears. It's more than just fighting for your self. Floyd Mayweather could be punched with a straight shot through his middle and he'd be adamant about it. I know what he's doing. (Who has mentioned Don Cornelius's fascination with her dancing] Don Cornelius was not interested in seeing me actually dance. I was doing hip-hop, which was not a style that was familiar to Californians. They knew nothing about hip-hop dancing. They only knew about locking and popping. Don was thinking, "No, no, no. You're female. I was like, What? It's so bizarre. It's really bizarre.