Rosie Perez Speaks Out on How an Agent Told Her to Get a "Nose Job"

Heidi Gutman/BRAVO via Getty Images

For too long, movies and television shows have left out Latinos, or exclusively portrayed us in stereotypical or antiquated ways—Rosie Perez is looking to change that.

While the Puerto Rican actress has always been vocal about a lack of representation, her most recent cover story interview with Variety dives deep into her beginnings in Hollywood, including memories of racially insensitive comments she received about her appearance from an agent.

Rather than embrace her natural features, the agent believed she should change her look and even go so far as to get cosmetic surgery to fit into the perceived standard of beauty.

"I don't want her to be canceled, but she told me that if I dyed my hair blond and got a nose job, 'I can get you more jobs. Because you're not Black.' I couldn't believe it," shared Perez.

Thankfully, the Oscar nominee was quick to rectify the real issue: "I was like, 'Thank you, fired.'"

Even within our Latino communities, Eurocentric beauty standards have long been upheld as the norm, but vocal figures like Perez are dedicated to increasing representation to showcase a wider range of Latinos.

Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images Rosie Perez in the early 90s.

"A few of us have come through, and I'm very grateful for that," she added. "But it's just not enough. As Latinos [...] we want to do things that are specific to our culture, to our story."

In an interview with People Chica in 2018, Perez admitted that the industry "wanted me to be completely white-washed." But its long-upheld glass ceiling of racism was something she was not afraid to shatter.

"I've never shied away from portraying my Puerto Rican-ness… You have to have that tenacity and that self-confidence to walk in a room and say 'This is how I see the character and this is how I want to play it.'"