Rosie Perez And Spike Lee's Turbulent Relationship Launched Her Career In Do The Right Thing
Highlights
- Rosie Perez's Hollywood career took off when she landed a role in Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" after an explosive first encounter at a party.
- Perez had to fight for her role in the film, dispelling the perception that she was simply discovered by Lee.
- Lee and Perez had some disagreements and shared a problematic scene in the film.
During Rosie Perez's career, she has enjoyed a great deal of success including becoming a co-host of The View, even though she left after only one season. More recently, Perez has had a career resurgence which has reminded many fans of what makes her so awesome.
Years before any of those accomplishments, Perez made her screen debut in one of the '80s most controversial movies, Do the Right Thing. As it turns out, Perez only landed that role because she made director Spike Lee mad at her.
Why Did Spike Lee Cast Rosie Perez In Do The Right Thing?
During Rosie Perez's career, she has certainly made her mark on Hollywood history. An extremely memorable actor who has enjoyed a great deal of success, Perez has starred in several films that have gone down in history.
Arguably best remembered for starring in White Men Can't Jump, Perez has also starred in several other movies over the years. Some of Perez's most notable other film roles were in movies like Fearless, It Could Happen to You, The Road to El Dorado, Pineapple Express, and Birds of Prey. Perez also recently starred in The Flight Attendant, a show that was headlined by Kaley Cuoco.
During Perez's career, she has also earned the respect of her peers. Thanks to her role in the film Fearless, Perez was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. Perez has also been nominated for a slew of other trophies including five Emmy Awards.
Before Perez achieved all of that, her Hollywood career really began when she landed her first IMDb-credited film role. In 1989, Perez portrayed Tina, a memorable character from Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
Many years after Do the Right Thing was released. Spike Lee took part in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session. During that session, a Reddit user asked Lee an extremely open-ended question about his career and life. "Can you tell us a cool anecdote you've wanted to share?"
Based on that question, Lee could have brought up any story from his amazing life. For that reason, it is fascinating that Lee opted to tell the story of the first time he met Perez and the moment that led to him casting her in Do the Right Thing.
Lee started his story by revealing he held a birthday party for himself in 1989. At the party, Lee had the then-popular R&B group E.U. perform a song that was a hit for them at the time. As Lee surveyed his party, he observed Perez for the first time and even though they would go on to work together, their introduction was explosive.
"This lady was dancing crazy on top of a speaker, I told her to get down, because if she fell, her neck would be broken and I would be sued. So finally she jumped off the speaker and started cursing me out in a voice I'd never heard before."
"I asked her where she was from, and she said she was from Brooklyn. I said 'where in Brooklyn' and she said 'Fort Greene' which is my neighborhood. I said 'What is your name' and she said 'Rosie Perez.' At the time I was writing Do The Right Thing, and that's when I got the idea to make Mookie's girlfriend Puerto Rican."
What Happened Between Spike Lee And Rosie Perez?
After Spike Lee and Rosie Perez enjoyed success together, it certainly would have made sense if they wanted to work together more. Despite that, Perez and Lee haven't collaborated on a movie together in almost 45 years as of this writing.
Throughout Lee's career, it has often seemed like he has had a lot of freedom in terms of who he casts in his films. With that in mind, it makes observers wonder why Perez and Lee didn't work together for decades.
As it turns out, Perez and Lee haven't always seen eye to eye. For example, it seems pretty clear that Perez resents the perception that Lee simply cast her in Do the Right Thing after they first met. In 2023, Perez spoke to Variety for a profile of her career and she attempted to clarify that she had to earn her Do the Right Thing role.
According to Perez's version of events, she met Lee in a club, and he gave her his card. From there, Perez says that Lee made her fight to be cast in Do the Right Thing.
“I didn’t understand who he was. And I didn’t care. I threw the card away. My girlfriend Marian went back and got it. She always joked, ‘You owe your entire career to me.’ You know, I did audition for ‘Do the Right Thing.’ People think that Spike just discovered me and gave me the role. No, he made me work for it.”
During a separate interview with The New York Times from the year 2000, Perez spoke about a more important issue in her relationship with Lee. According to what Perez said in that interview, she filmed a revealing scene for Do the Right Thing and had a really bad experience.
"I had a big problem with it, mainly because I was afraid of what my family would think -- that's what was really bothering me. It wasn't really about taking off my clothes. But I also didn't feel good about it because the atmosphere wasn't correct." "The reason you don't see my head is because I'm crying. I was like, I don't want to do this."
While speaking to Variety for their aforementioned 2023 profile, Perez didn't take back her comments to The New York Times. However, Perez expressed her opinion that people overreacted to her comments and revealed that she and Lee made peace.
“In our cancel culture, some people need to be canceled. And when I was telling the story, people were ready to cancel Spike Lee and cancel me for saying something. And I was like, ‘You know what? This is getting out of hand.’”
“Here’s the thing. It happened. We discussed it, we made up, we hugged it out, and we’re still friends to this day." Perez continued, "And sometimes people need a chance to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ For a man of his stature to say ‘I’m sorry’ is huge. But that’s why I don’t like to talk about it — because people get too crazy.”
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