Advertisement

Rosie Perez, 57, gets real about aging and Botox: 'Actresses don't want to admit it but they all do it'

Rosie Perez is sharing her outlook on aging in a new interview with the Guardian.

"When I started noticing that I wasn't getting the same attention as when I was younger, it made me laugh, it didn't depress me," the 57-year-old actress, who is married, told the publication. But Perez admited that she had her doubts when she was told she'd be playing both the older and younger versions of her character on her new Apple+ series, Now and Then.

Rosie Perez speaks out on aging. (Photo: Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic)
Rosie Perez speaks out on aging. (Photo: Arturo Holmes/FilmMagic)

"I said, 'Darling, do you see these jowls around my face?' I have no fillers going on. Maybe a little Botox," she revealed, noting that the procedure is quite common in her industry. "Actresses don't want to admit it but they all do it."

The Flight Attendant star added that she followed the lead of "a lot of the Spanish actresses" by using a "device" provided by the show's makeup department to make her neck appear firmer.

"Oh my God, my publicist probably won’t want me to say this, but I’m gonna say it," she shared. "I said, ‘What are you going to do about my neck?’ And they go, ‘We got the secret.’”

The Oscar-nominated star also reflected on her rise to fame, describing her early days as an in-demand choreographer as "exciting, hard and depressing" due to the nature of being a woman in the male-dominated music industry. Women were held to a higher standard, she says.

"The misogyny was very, very high," Perez shared. "All these men were just — excuse my French — f***ng everything that walked. And they were patted on the back. God forbid if you were caught kissing a guy; your career was done. But then every guy was hitting on you. It was non-stop. Even if you got a job, if you didn’t flirt with the manager, the producer, the record company person, or didn’t sleep with them, it would be very difficult for you to secure employment.”

Her memoir, Handbook for an Unpredictable Life: How I Survived Sister Renata and My Crazy Mother, detailed being abandoned by her mother who struggled with schizophrenia and enduring abuse at the hands of a Catholic group home nun. Despite her rough beginning, Perez never let the circumstances of her upbringing deter her from pursuing her larger-than-life dreams.

"You know, people think that just because you're born into a certain circumstance, that you are that, and I was never that, even as a child," she said. "I was always thinking, 'I don't belong here.'"

The White Men Can't Jump star is still working through her struggles with mental health but said she is doing better.

"Now it's manageable. I'm able to get out of my way and enjoy the work," she said.

Want lifestyle and wellness news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Life’s newsletter.