Rosie Perez says that an agent as soon as suggested her to drastically change her look to look extra caucasian.
“She instructed me that if I dyed my hair blond and received a nostril job, ‘I can get you extra jobs. Because you’re not black,’” the Latina actress, 58, instructed Variety in a latest interview. “I couldn’t consider it. I used to be like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ like, ‘thanks, fired.’”
Soon after, the truth of her resolution set in.
“I had no one, I had no cash,” she shared.
But the “Do The Right Thing” actress discovered an ally in her “Criminal Justice” co-star Jennifer Grey, who upon listening to in regards to the agent’s recommendation, immediately referred to as her personal agent.
“Jennifer and I clicked immediately,” the previous Perez stated. “I haven’t seen that girl in ages, however I simply assume she’s phenomenal. She’s like, ‘I can not consider how racist this trade is.’ She picks up the cellphone and calls Jane Berliner at CAA and says, ‘You must characterize this actress.’”
Berliner signed Perez and helped her safe two roles that will change her profession.
The first was as Woody Harrelson’s girlfriend in “White Men Can’t Jump,” a task that was initially written for a white girl.
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“It was only a magical summer time,” Perez reminisced of taking part in reverse Harrelson and Wesley Snipes. “And once you’re scrolling in your TV to see what you need to watch, and March Madness comes up, after which there’s ‘White Men Can’t Jump,’ you may’t assist however watch.”
That alternative led to Peter Weir’s movie “Fearless,” which once more, the studio needed a white girl to play.
Despite stress from the studio, Weir and Jeff Bridges, who performed Max Klein within the 1993 drama, held their floor.
Perez’s position as grieving mom Carla Rodrigo garnered her an Oscar nomination.
And regardless of being a member of the Academy, the actress revealed in 2021 that she has not been invited again since her nomination in 1994.
“Not even to take a seat within the viewers, to not current, nothing — and I’m a member,” she instructed Variety. “I like the Academy Awards. I cheer on my friends, however it hurts. It’s like when your property workforce doesn’t ask you to come back again into the stadium after you bought as much as bat and hit the house run.”
She was, nevertheless, invited to the Oscars the next yr to current an award alongside Snipes and Harrelson.
Despite the drama within the earlier a part of her profession, Perez continued touchdown roles in films reminiscent of “Pineapple Express.”
She was additionally tapped as a number of “The View,” nevertheless, she left the speak present after only one season for causes she refused to elaborate on.
“I’m not supposed to speak about it,” she instructed Variety. “Let’s simply say that what I believed I used to be there for was alleged to be one form of a factor, which excited me, after which after I received there, that’s not what it was.”
While sitting on the panel, an nameless govt claimed to Variety that Perez couldn’t learn a teleprompter, inflicting Latino leaders to demand an apology.
Additionally, ABC govt Barbara Fedida, who oversaw the present throughout Perez’s tenure, was fired in 2020 for making racially insensitive feedback about “Good Moning America” anchor Robin Roberts, who’s a black girl.
Perez refused to remark, merely saying: “Not going there.”
“The Flight Attendant” star, who can at the moment be seen on “Your Honor,” shall be honored subsequent month at Variety’s Power of Women occasion alongside Natasha Lyonne, Kelly Ripa, Michaela Jae Rodriguez and writer Judy Blume.
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