Rosie Perez is taking legal action against the producers NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit after she was injured during filming of a 2009 guest appearance on the show.
The former “Fly Girl” claims she was “recklessly pulled, grabbed, yanked, wrenched and manhandled” while shooting scenes for the crime drama nearly two years ago. In the Oct. 2009 episode titled “Hardwired,” Perez played a woman who discovers that her husband has been molesting her young son. One scene called for an extra to physically shake Perez. She felt a pain in her neck during filming and wanted to stop, but she continued for two more takes and almost immediately knew something was very wrong.
She was right.
According to her attorney, Perez, 46, has been out of work for over a year as she battles chronic pain and numbness in her arms.
Last July, the actress/dancer showed up at a White House reception honoring her work in the HIV-AIDS community clad in a neckbrace and being pushed around in a wheelchair. Perez told President Obama that she’d recently undergone a bone marrow procedure and surgery on her neck.
Best remembered for her roles in films like Do the Right Thing and White Men Can’t Jump, the Brooklyn native received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her role in the 1994 Peter Weir’s film Fearless.