Please welcome Rosie Perez.
(cheering and applause)
(laughs): Wow.
Thank you.
Wow.
Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
-Welcome to the show. -Thank you.
This is so much fun having you here.
I-I have danced to many of the moves you've created.
-Oh. -I have tried to imitate your acting
in many of the movies that you've been in.
You-you do so many things.
Uh, actor, dancer, choreographer.
Do you feel like this show that you're on now, Rise,
is the perfect culmination of all of those talents?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Um, and also, it's...
it's my personal life meeting my professional life
-in the sense... -In what way?
In the sense that I cofounded an arts education charity,
-Right. -um, 25 years ago.
And we service about 15,000 kids a year.
-Right. -And only at Title I schools,
which means at or below the poverty li...
I don't have to explain it to you.
Your audience is educated!
-(laughs) -All right!
Uh, so, you know, when I read the script,
I said, "This is what I do anyway."
-Right. -And, um, so it was a beautiful thing.
-Right. So-so, you play... -A match.
you play a teacher in this show who is, I guess,
the head of the program, the arts program.
But a lot of people were angry 'cause they were like,
"No, she's not the head. She was supposed to be the head,
"and then her job gets taken away
by some middle-aged white guy who just wanted the job."
People were really angry about that,
as if it wasn't, like, a-a fake show.
They're like, "Rosie Perez, why didn't you fight?"
(laughs) Yeah.
People were beyond angry. They were pissed the hell off.
-(laughs) -They... And I loved that.
-Right. -I really did.
And I-I remember telling the show creator, Jason Katims.
I said, "You know, women are gonna be angry."
And this was prior to the Me Too movement.
-And he said, "Really?" I said, "Yeah." -Wow.
I mean, my character got passed over
by a middle-aged, less qualified white guy.
Hello. You know?
People are gonna be very angry.
-Right. -And when I saw it on social media,
I was so happy.
I was... Seriously, I was happy by their anger,
because if they weren't angry,
I'd be like, "Oh, my goodness.
-This nation is truly asleep." -Right.
-And they're not. They're very woke, so... -Yeah.
P-People really connected with the story,
and you play this amazing teacher
who in many ways, as you said,
is connected to you in real life.
You've always been passionate about the arts.
You've always been passionate about kids in school
-having access to arts programs. -Yes.
Why is it so important in your eyes?
It's important because we have lost...
the ability to imagine.
We have lost the ability for critical thinking,
for creative thinking,
and that's what arts education provides to young students.
-Right. -And we don't have that anymore.
You know, I have a great organization.
There are other few organizations out there,
but we struggle.
We have to fight for government funding,
which has been cut severely
with this current administration,
-with that man. -Right.
-And, um... -(laughs)
(cheering and applause)
You know?
Um, you know, uh...
You know, and we have to go to corporate America
and just regular folks to help us fund these programs.
And I'll give you an example.
They have the Regents Exam in New York,
-in the tri-state area. -Right.
You cannot graduate high school
-unless you pass Regents Exam, right? -Uh-huh.
So, um, we've had this student named Mikey.
He failed it six times.
He took our program.
In three weeks, he passed the Regents Exam,
-and he went on to college, you know? -Oh, wow.
So... yeah.
(applause)
And-and the great thing about that program, really,
wasn't just, you know, we took the core curriculum
and broke it down in-into an interactive play,
and songs and dance and all of that,
but it was that he felt special.
-He felt part of a community. -Right.
And in the show, Rise,
they don't address arts education,
but they do address the arts.
And it's the same thing.
This is in a small town community,
and it's allowing the kids
in that high school to feel a part of something.
And that's very, very important.
And if you want to add to the economic wheel,
if you want to add to the bottom line of this nation,
you have to invest in the kids,
in their education, and in the arts.
(cheers and applause)
I won't argue with that.
You...
You are someone who's always been very passionate
about causes that you feel don't get representation,
or need more attention.
Most recently, we saw that passion expressed
-through the relief efforts in Puerto Rico. -Yeah.
A lot of people went in, you know,
head first into Puerto Rico and said, "We're gonna help.
We-We're gonna do whatever we want to do."
And it feels like every now and again people forget.
People forget that the issue wasn't resolved overnight.
What do you feel still needs to be done?
And what do you wish people knew about
what's happening in Puerto Rico today?
Well, first of all, Politico came out
with a great, great article--
and I urge everyone to read it--
about how disparaging
the amount of funds
the government gave to Puerto Rico.
They gave an enormous amount of-of help and aid,
and military aid, um, to Texas,
but to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands,
-we got shit. You know? -Right.
Seriously, we did. And, um, you know,
and so people did rush to the island.
Good Americans rushed to the island.
Even foreigners rushed to the island to try to help.
And right now, five percent of the island still
is without power.
People are committing suicide at a high, high rate,
because they are so desperate and despondent.
And, you know, my friend, Ramón Rodríguez,
along with Heart 9/11
and the Rockefeller Foundation,
and Today, I'm Brave,
we went down there to address the needs.
And the number one need, really,
-was they needed a roof over their homes. -Wow.
Because the tarps only lasted, I think it was 90 days,
and they started to shred and break apart,
and it's an island, it's a tropical island.
You're still gonna have storms.
And even when we were down there building roofs,
the storms did occur.
And it was heartbreaking.
It was heartbreaking watching this elderly woman,
I think she was, like, in her 70s,
with an umbrella in her living room.
You know? And this is like, what?
These are Americans, man.
Don't throw us paper towels, give us help.
You know? Seriously.
And it just, it broke my heart.
It broke something in me,
and it just burst open a fury.
It's just like, wow, this is crazy, you know?
And-and with that organization, with Heart 9/11,
what we decided to do, um,
was create an apprentice program.
So, you know, you can give a man a fish, you know,
but if you teach him how to fish, he'll be okay.
You know? So that's what we're doing.
We're teaching them carpentry, building homes,
and we're gonna extend that program
if we get more money and more funding.
You know, we wish it would come from our government,
-but we can't wait. -Right.
We can't wait because people are suffering.
Well, I'm glad you're on the case.
I'm glad people are still donating.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
Thank you, man. I love your show.
-I appreciate you so much. -I love it. Thank you, guys.
Rise airs Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. on NBC.
Rosie Perez, everybody.