Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City, to Lydia Perez and Ismael Serrano who was a merchant marine. She is of Puerto Rican descent. 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 just starting her second year of college and was scheduled to return to New York. Her departure was a celebration by her classmates. Spike Lee offered her a role in his 1989 film Do the Right Thing (1989). She agreed. This was her first acting experience in a major role. She was to play the supporting character of Carla Rodrigo in Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) and for which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. (She was defeated by Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). In my early days, my Latin community was responsible for my most of the negative feedback I was subjected to. They would go out for lunch and ask me, "Can you go and get some lessons to improve your accent?". or, "When it's a talk show, how are you going to not not be funny? My voice was always a critic. I tried to improve my voice. While I tried to alter my voice, it was still not my way of speaking. My octaves slowed as I grew up, thanks to God. Boxing is about conquering your fears. It's more about fighting yourself. Floyd Mayweather could be punched. Straight shot across his middle. He's not blinking. And I understand the way he's performing. [Who talked about Don Cornelius watching her danceand commenting on her dance]: Don Cornelius did not want to see how I really danced . I was performing hip-hop, and it seemed new to people in California. They were accustomed to popping and locking, and so hip-hop dancing was not something they were looking to master. Don was just like "No I'm not going to. You're one of us. I thought, "What? This is just so weird. It's really bizarre.