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 was a student at Grover Cleveland High School in Ridgewood, Queens, New York and then enrolled at Los Angeles City College in Los Angeles, California. Rosie Perez was just starting her second semester of college and was scheduled to return to New York. Her departure was a party by her peers. She accepted Spike Lee's offer to be part of his film Do the Right Thing (1989). It was her first major role as an actor. In Peter Weir's Fearless (1993) the actress played the supporting role Carla Rodrigo, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Artist. (She lost to Anna Paquin for The Piano (1993). The Latin community was the source of the majority of my criticism at the beginning of my career. They would take me out to lunch and ask me, "Can I go and learn some lessons so that I can lessen my accent?" Also, "When you're on a talk show, how can you not be less hilarious and loud?". People were so critical about my voice that they gave me a lot of grief. It was my voice that I couldn't bear to change. Thanks to God, my octaves decreased as I became older. It's now a pleasure to see a 16-year-old come up and mimics me.Boxing is about conquering your fears. It's more about fighting for yourself. Floyd Mayweather could be punched in a clean way, such as a shot down his middle and he'd never hesitate. And I can understand the way he's performing. [Who mentioned Don Cornelius watching her danceand commenting on her dance]: Don Cornelius did not want to see how I really danced . I was dancing hip-hop, and it was foreign to people out in California. They were ignorant of hip-hop dancing, and only knew about locking and popping. Don was as if, "No, no, no. You're an asian woman. I thought, "What? This is truly bizarre. This is really weird.