Rosie Perez recalled the confidence boost Johnny Depp gave her, which inspired her to fire her then-agent.
Perez and Depp costarred in the series version of 21 Jump Street, which aired on Fox beginning 1987 and later inspired the 2012 film of the same name starring Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum.
Depp starred in four seasons of the show as Officer Thomas “Tom” Hanson Jr while Perez made a cameo as an illiterate drug dealer’s girlfriend.
“My first scene, Johnny Depp whispered in my ear, ‘Oh, darling, you’re too good for this s***,’” Perez recalled in a new interview with Variety.
“Then he invited me to his trailer, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh, my God, Johnny Depp’s invited me to his trailer.’ He’s on the phone, and he goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, she’s amazing. Her name is Rosie Perez. Hang on. Hey, Rosie — over here. Say hello to my girlfriend, Winona Ryder.’ And I fell over laughing.
“After, we talked seriously, and he said, ‘I’m gonna tell people about you. You know, you’re right for the good stuff.’”
While the now-58-year-old Flight Attendant star is unsure whether Depp ever did sing her praises in Hollywood, she said the pep talk gave her the motivation to sack her agent at the time, who she declined to name.
“I don’t want her to be cancelled, 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. I was like, ‘Oh, my goodness. Like, thank you, fired,’” she said.
Perez went on to land a new agent who helped her book key roles in Do the Right Thing (1989) and White Men Can’t Jump (1992).
Depp, meanwhile, has recently relocated to Somerset in southwest England after his highly publicised defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard last year.
A jury determined Heard defamed Depp on all three counts and awarded him $10m (£8.2m) in compensatory damages and $5m (£4.1m) in punitive damages. Heard was awarded $2m (£1.6m) in compensatory damages.
