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Rosie Perez refused to give up on a fight scene in Birds of Prey despite getting a knee injury.
The actress plays Gotham City Police Department detective Renee Montoya in the DC Comics movie, which stars Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn, Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Black Canary, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Huntress.
The stars were required to embark on serious physical training to prepare for the movie, but Perez suffered an injury on the first day.
“After over 30 years of dancing, choreographing and doing martial arts, I thought my body was done,” she shared with U.S. Glamour magazine. “I was a bit panicked about it and on my first training day, the meniscus disc in my knee tore. I'm a grown-a*s woman and I was in tears – it was more about letting the squad down, letting Margot, Jurnee, and Mary down.”
The 55-year-old continued to train while attending physical rehab, but the injury returned again during a fight scene with Robbie. However, Perez was determined not to let her injury stand in the way of the sequence and simply carried on.
“My knee blew out again, when I had a fight with Margot and I went, ‘Oh, no, no, no!’ I looked over at Margot and she goes, ‘You're okay.’ That is what your corner does in boxing,” the star recalled. “I was like, ‘There's no freaking way I'm going to let this scene go. There's no way, I'm better than that.’ I could take the punches and, literally, we were kicking each other.”
Meanwhile, the Do the Right Thing star also heaped praise on her co-stars, director Cathy Yan, and the crew for creating a supportive atmosphere on set and stated that the experience “reignited the power I already had”.
Birds of Prey is in cinemas now.