The funny thing is I'm not even Latin. I was constantly getting Latin roles, and I was like, I even was nominated for an award, and I was like, 'Let them know at the NAACP, the first white woman. Let them know I'm totally grateful, but I'm not Latin. I can't do that. I play Latin.'
You know, I still live in my neighborhood. I live in Brooklyn and the same neighborhood, so I don't really get star treatment like that. I'm still Vanessa from the neighborhood.
I'm still Vanessa from the neighborhood. My parents own the shop, and I'm there all the time, that I worked in when I was a teenager. I have a child from my childhood sweetheart.
You have to really love women in order to really just have a respect for women and love them. No man - I don't care what kind of man it is, how feminine he is - they never could understand what we go through as far as physically and mentally.