Rosie Perez says Spike Lee made amends with her after she spoke out against Do the Right Thing’s nude scene: ‘We made up, hugged and remain friends to this day’
Rosie Perez says she and Spike Lee have made amends in the decades since he complained about acting in a nude scene for the director in the 1989 film Do the Right Thing.
The Brooklyn, New York, native, 58, speaking with Variety on Wednesday, said she and the filmmaker have been on good terms after his comments at a 2000 roundtable for The New York Times Magazine in which he said his “first experience” showing meat on camera “was horrible.”
Perez played the role of Tina in the groundbreaking film that Lee, 66, wrote, directed and starred in.
Pérez said at the 2000 roundtable: ‘My first experience, of course, was Do the Right Thing. And I had a big problem with that, mainly because I was afraid of what my family would think, that’s what really bothered me.’
Perez said the problem wasn’t necessarily taking off her clothes, but that “it didn’t feel good either because the environment wasn’t right.”
The Latest: Rosie Perez, 58, says she and Spike Lee, 66, have made amends in the decades since she complained about acting in a nude scene for the director in the 1989 film Do the Right Thing. Pictured at Lee’s birthday party in New York earlier this month.
‘And when Spike Lee puts ice cubes on my nipples, the reason you can’t see my head is because I’m crying. I was like, “I don’t want to do this.”
He continued in the 2000 chat: ‘I felt like Irene Cara on Fame. It was like, “Wait a minute, I feel so weak, this is not who I am.” So that was my first experience, and it was horrible.
The Oscar-nominated actress, speaking to Variety in the new interview, said people were upset with both her and Lee in the wake of the revelation 23 years ago.
“In our cancel culture, some people need to be cancelled,” he said. “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.”
Perez said Lee apologized to her and the two eventually moved on, as she was pictured with the creative Oscar winner at his birthday party in New York City earlier this month.
“We discussed it, we made up, we hugged, and we remain friends to this day,” he said. “And sometimes people need the opportunity 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.”
In the interview with Variety, Perez revealed that she did not know who Lee was when she initially met him at a nightclub.
“I didn’t understand who it was,” he said. And I didn’t care. I threw the card. My girlfriend Marian came back and got it.
She always joked, “You owe me your entire career.” You know, I auditioned for Do the Right Thing. People think that Spike just discovered me and gave me the part. No, he made me work for it.
Perez played the role of Tina in the breakthrough film that Lee wrote, directed, and starred in.
Pérez in a 2000 panel discussion said that she was crying during the filming of a nude scene in the film.
Perez said Lee apologized to her and the two eventually moved on, as she was pictured with the creative Oscar winner at his birthday party in New York City earlier this month.