Actress and ABC’s “The View” co-host Rosie Perez will introduce USA Network’s next Characters Unite film series pick, “Do the Right Thing,” when it airs on the cable channel on Saturday, TheWrap has learned.
Commemorating the Spike Lee film’s 25th anniversary, Perez has shot a personal and unique introduction for USA’s limited commercial airing.
“Do the Right Thing,” which centers on a Brooklyn neighborhood at a time in which its residents’ volatile race relations are about to become violent, starred Perez in her first acting role as Tina, girlfriend to Mookie (Lee), in 1989.
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“Do the Right Thing” is USA’s seventh film of the series, which was created to address the social injustices and cultural divides still prevalent in our society.
“‘Do the Right Thing’ is one of those rare films that’s as provocative cinematically as it is socially,” said NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment chairman Bonnie Hammer. “Spike Lee brilliantly applies his innovative visual and storytelling techniques to an exploration of race relations as resonant today as it was 25 years ago.”
The film would go on to garner Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and for Best Supporting Actor for Danny Aiello, who played racially insensitive neighborhood Pizza place owner Sal.
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Perez is just the latest in a long line of accomplished individuals to deliver an introduction for the film series’ picks, which have included President Barack Obama’s introduction to “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Color Purple” with an introduction by the film’s Oscar-winning star and Perez’s “View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg, Emmy-winner and activist Neil Patrick Harris for “To Kill a Mockingbird,” musician Quincy Jones for “In the Heat of the Night,” and former president Bill Clinton’s intro to “Philadelphia.”
A former dancer and choreographer, Perez would go on to star in numerous films, such as “White Men Can’t Jump,” “Pineapple Express” and “The Counselor,” among many others.
Watch Perez bust a move in the opening credits to “Do the Right Thing” above.
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