“Do the Right Thing” marked a breakthrough role for actress Rosie Perez, but despite the fame it brought her, filming the classic movie wasn’t always smooth sailing.

A particular scene left the former View host feeling exploited and violated.

Meeting Spike Lee

The connection between Rosie Perez and Spike Lee began when Perez went to a nightclub where Lee happened to be present.

In a conversation with Desus & Mero, Perez described how she noticed Lee hosting a “butt contest” at the club, prompting her to confront him.

Perez remembered their exchange: “He and I got in an argument, and he said, ‘Tonight is fate.’ And I was like, ‘You wish.’

“He started laughing and he goes, ‘No, I’m telling you.’

“He asked me if I act, and I said, ‘No.’

“The next day my girlfriend called him because she wanted to hook up.

“He said, ‘No, I want to talk with the girl with the accent.'”

Feeling annoyed, Perez took the phone from her friend and said, “Yo, what the f***?”

Lee later invited Perez to audition, and although she didn’t take it seriously, she accepted. The audition ultimately led to her role in “Do the Right Thing.”

Feeling “Violated” in “Do the Right Thing”

In “Do the Right Thing,” Perez, then an emerging actor, filmed her first nude scene. She felt uneasy about it for several reasons, but it wasn’t just about taking her clothes off.

Perez told the New York Times, “It wasn’t really about taking off my clothes. But I also didn’t feel good about it because the atmosphere wasn’t correct.

“And when Spike Lee puts ice cubes on my nipples, the reason you don’t see my head is that I’m crying. I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this.'”

She later disrobed for another film, “White Men Can’t Jump,” but felt comfortable because the situation was different.

Perez explained, “But that was because it was totally my decision, I felt totally comfortable, the director was so cool and Woody Harrelson was like, ‘Well, whatever you want is cool with me.’

“So there I felt empowered by it. But with Do the Right Thing it was like, Now I’m the object, here’s the shot.”

Perez regretted not speaking up at the time, saying, “And the reason why I cried was not so much because I felt violated as because I was angry at myself, because I wanted to say: ‘Say something! Get up!’ So that’s how I felt violated. I felt like I violated myself.”

Advised to Lose Her Accent

Throughout her acting career, Rosie Perez was often told to change certain aspects of herself, particularly her accent.

Despite some believing her accent was an issue, the Emmy-nominated actress refused to be discouraged.

“Managers, agents, everybody was telling me to go to speech classes. They were telling me I’d get more work if I stopped speaking like that,” Perez said.

“I started getting insulted. I said, ‘What’s wrong with the way I speak?’”

This all changed after she featured in White Men Can’t Jump, in which “everybody was, like, ‘Grrreeeaat!’”