Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was born to Lydia Perez (a merchant marine) in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Rosie is of Puerto Rican descent. Rosie attended Grover Cleveland High School, Ridgewood, Queens, New York. She later was enrolled at Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez was in her second year of college, and about to move back to New York from Los Angeles. Her friends had brought her an elopement party. She accepted Spike Lee's offer to work in his film Do the Right Thing (1989). It was her first major acting role. She was to play the character Carla Rodrigo in Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) which was for which she received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She lost to Anna Paquin, for The Piano (1993). The most criticism I received early in my career came coming from the Latin community. I remember them taking me out for lunch and telling me "Can you take lessons to lessen your accent?" Also, "When you're on a talk show, could you not be outrageous and loud?". Some people were so critical of my voice, they gave me a lot of grief. It was my speech that I didn't want to change. As I got older, my octaves slowed down thanks to God. Today, I am enthralled if a sixteen-year-old comes up and mimics me.Boxing is about overcoming your fears. It's about being confident. Floyd Mayweather could be punched, like a clean shot down his middle and he'd never hesitate. I can understand what he is doing. He mentioned that Don Cornelius was fascinated with her dancing] Don Cornelius was not interested in watching me dance. I was performing hip-hop and it was not a style that was familiar to Californians. They only knew about popping and locking, so they were not keen on hip-hop dancing. Don was like, "No. You're a girl. I was like, What? This is just so weird. It was really weird.