Rosie Perez

 Rosie Perez was born to Lydia Perez (a merchant marine) in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She is Puerto Rican. Rosie attended Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, Queens, New York and then enrolled in Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez was in her sophomore year of college and just about to move back to New York from Los Angeles. Her friends had thrown her an excuse to go away party. She accepted the offer of Spike Lee to be part of his film Do the Right Thing (1989). This would be her first acting role in a major film. She was to play the supporting character of Carla Rodrigo in Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) in which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. (She lost to Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993).) A lot of the criticism I received in the beginning of my career was coming from the Latin community. They would take me out for lunch and say to me, "Can you go and learn to lower your accent?". Or, "When it's a talk show, how are you going to not be funny? Many people gave me criticism about my voice, and I tried. It was my speech that I was not willing to alter. As I got older the octaves fell, thank God. It's about taking on your fears head-on. It's about being strong. Floyd Mayweather could be punched in a clean way, such as a shot in the middle of his body, and he wouldn’t hesitate. It's a good thing I understand the way he's performing. The person who mentioned Don Cornelius's awe with her dancing] Don Cornelius was not interested in seeing me actually perform. I was dancing hip-hop and it was a different style for Californians. They didn't know anything about hip-hop dancing and only had a basic understanding of locking and popping. Don was just like "No I'm not going to. You're one of us. I thought"What? It's really bizarre. Then I had to perform in high-heeled shoes, and I have never danced in high heels before. I was wearing this tiny, short dress and it's going up my stomach and I'm all like, Oh my God