Rosie Perez Makes Law & Order SVU Debut Tuesday Night

By Alicia Cruz
 The Black Urban Times

Rosie Pérez - the great Boricua diva - starred in an episode of Law & Order SVU Tuesday night. Perez, born Rosa María Pérez is an actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist from Brooklyn (Bushwick), New York.

The Puerto Rican princess played Eva, the mother of a young boy who was being sexually abused by his own father. Perez played a high-strung, protective mother with a penchant for violence (she attacks the mother of her son's schoolmate and her husband all in one week).

She stabs her husband after he's busted in a sting operation led by SVU veteran detectives Benson and Stabler (Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni) to catch the husband and another child predator.

Pérez' performance was nothing short of spectacular, according to many fans via Twitter. Sporting a tight curly do with a not-so heavy-as-usual-Brooklyn-Boricua accent, she looked great and her acting was on par with what we've come to expect from Perez since she made her silver screen debut in 1988 in Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing."

Tweets about Rosie Pérez on Law & Order SVU

Rosie Perez the bomb diggity...thekoolaidsmile via txt

I love #SVU Hardwired. Although I'm baffled Rosie Perez didn't win or at least get nominated for an Emmy for this ep. ...lilemmie via Twitter for Android

RT @MakiLane: Rosie Perez just told Olivia she was gangster!! #SVU <-GREAT Episode!

...iluvmuzic...via UberTwitter

Damn Rosie Perez acted her ass off...got me up in here tearin up...liontamar viz txt

Pérez made her Broadway debut in Terrence McNally's "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," and landed her third major role in 1992 hit comedy "White Men Can't Jump" as Woody Harrelson's amante caliente, Gloria, whose burning desire to try out "magnificently" for "Jeopardy" kept her head in the books as she and "Billy" (Harrelson) ran from wanna-be mobsters.

Pérez scored an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Peter Weir's 1993 film "Fearless," and in 1997, she starred in Perdita Durango, a controversial film in which many scenes of excessive violence, sex and nudity were edited out of the version released in the United States, but remained intact in the version released throughout Latin America.

Pérez, a fiesty activist for Puerto Rican rights, documented her activism in her film "Yo Soy Boricua! Pa' Que Tú Lo Sepas!" (I'm Puerto Rican, Just So You Know!). She also starred in and directed the Spanish AIDS PSA campaign "Join the Fight" for Cable Positive and Kismet Films.

During her appearence at an AIDS event in Washington, DC, Dona Pérez had to be wheeled into the White House in a wheelchair to meet President Obama after she suffered an injury while filming the episode of Law & Order: SVU she appeared in Tuesday night.

Almost a year ago, a scene Pérez was in called for an extra to physically shake her. Immediately, Pérez says she felt a pain in her neck, but she went on to finish two more takes before she knew something was seriously wrong.

Turns out, the 46-year-old Boricua was suffering from a slipped and bulging disc. Earlier this year, she underwent a bone marrow procedure and had surgery on her neck. At the AIDS event, when Pérez explained to President Obama how she got injured performing a stunt, he joked, "Don't you know they have professionals for that?" Pérez told him she liked to perform her own stunts and Obama joked, "Obviously, you're not that good at it."

Other movies the actress has starred in include, Criminal Justice (1990), Untamed Heart (1993), It Could Happen to You (1994) and Somebody to Love (1994). Pérez is divorced from husband Seth Zvi Rosenfeld.

Rosie Perez in "Do The Right Thing"

Rosie Perez & Spike Lee in a scene