Rosie Perez Originally Turned Down The Flight Attendant

“The Flight Attendant” star Rosie Perez revealed during “The Daily Show with Trevor Noah” April 18 that she wasn’t sure about signing on to the Emmy-nominated HBO Max series. “When I first read it, I said, ‘This is a weird show,’” Perez said. “And I turned it down because I don’t like traveling. I hate flying.” But ahead of Season 2, which premieres April 21, Perez noted that she is definitely happy she is part of the cast. “I’m glad that I said yes,” she added. “First day, first scene, out the bag, I said, ‘This is going to be a hit.’” Aside from her travel concerns, Perez opened up about just how rare of a role “The Flight Attendant” offered her. “It was special because in Hollywood, they don’t allow women to age,” Perez said. “You have to do all this shit to your face and your body, you know? I’m serious. I love to eat, honey. I just can’t do it. I mean, I try. But it was very important to me to embrace the age.”

Perez’s character Megan is a maternal coworker to Casey (Kaley Cuoco), who gets entangled with the mob after an embezzlement scheme gone wrong. Executive producer Cuoco previously told The Hollywood Reporter that Perez was the perfect choice to play Megan. “It was such an immediate love for each other; I felt very comfortable full-on begging her,” Cuoco joked in August 2021. “And she goes, ‘Well, I don’t really like flying.’ And I think, “Does she know this is [a show] about a flight attendant?’” Perez eventually signed on after bonding over a shared work ethic with Cuoco. But that doesn’t mean that it was an easy shoot: Cuoco later shared that she even developed a stress-induced skin condition after traveling nonstop for the Season 2 production. IndieWire’s Kristen Lopez wrote in her review of the new season that “The Flight Attendant” reinvents itself as a more grounded dark comedy following Cassie’s personal growth in lieu of a murder mystery. “The story is streamlined to focus more on Cassie’s own personal development,” Lopez penned. “This might turn off those who enjoyed what Season 1 laid out, but if you’ve enjoyed the characters this far you’ll continue to love Cuoco and company as they try to become adults.”