Rosie Perez

Rosie Perez was born in Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City She was the daughter of Lydia Perez and Ismael Serrano an officer in the Merchant Marine. Rosie is of Puerto Rican descent. Rosie went to Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, Queens, New York as well as later, she enrolled in Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez was in her second year of college, and about to move back to New York from Los Angeles. Her departure was a party by her fellow students. Spike Lee offered her a role in his 1989 film Do The Right Thing (1989). She accepted. It was her first big acting role. She was later cast in the 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). Early in my career, the Latin community was the one responsible for much of the criticism I received. They would invite me to lunch and ask me, "Can I go and learn lessons to lessen my accent?" or, "When it's a talk show, how can you not be so funny? I received a lot of negativity about my voice and I tried. Although I tried to change my voice, it was still not the way that I spoke. Thank Godthat my octaves fell as I became older. Boxing is all about taking on your biggest fears. It's about fighting for yourself. Floyd Mayweather could be punched or swung clean down his middle, and he wouldn’t hesitate. I know the way he's performing. [Who mentioned Don Cornelius's fascination with her dancing]: Don Cornelius was not interested in watching me dance. I was performing hip-hop and it was a different style for Californians. They knew nothing about hip-hop dancing, and only had a basic understanding of locking and popping. Don was saying, "No, no, no. You're one of us. I was like, "What? This is really weird. It was really weird.