Rosie Perez says The Flight Attendant had to shut down production over her "terrifying" coronavirus diagnosis, recalls returning to a Contagion-like set

UPROXX

The actress tells Uproxx she contract COVID-19 last December while traveling to Bangkok to film her HBO Max series. "At that time, they were saying it’s a new respiratory tract infection," she says. "It’s a virus that’s going around. We don’t really know what it is and what it does, but it attacks the respiratory system first and then travels to other parts of your body. And I was like, 'Oh my God.' It was terrifying. I remember my manager was with me, and I said, 'Tarik, don’t let me die in Bangkok.' And he goes, 'Oh my God,' you’re scaring me.” And the head of the ICU says, 'You should be scared, sir. This is serious. We’re going to have to put her in a separate room.' Because it was new. (This) was in December." Perez also recalled returning to the set after her recovery. "I was very nervous, but when I got on set, everything was run so efficiently," she says. "I was like, 'This looks like the movie, Contagion.' It was bizarre. Standing in line for the COVID test, having hair and makeup with the goggles and the face masks, and then the face shields and the blue emergency room gowns. They took every precaution possible. They were really professional about it, real champs, and put everyone at ease. But it was hard. On my last day, I was so emotional. I turned and I looked and Kaley was crying and she hugged the back of me and we were not supposed to do that. And I just turned around and I hugged her. We were both so emotional, I said, ‘Thank you, Kaley (Cuoco). Thank you for convincing me to do this show. I cannot believe how much fun and how much satisfaction I got from this. Thank you.”