'It's just about being here,' the actress tells ET of taking care of her father.
There's a good reason why Rosario Dawson and her boyfriend, Cory Booker, are quarantining thousands of miles apart. The Briarpatch star tells ET's Ashley Crossan that she's been taking care of her parents, Isabel and Greg Dawson, who are at "high risk" amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"I'm here taking care of my parents. My dad is 6'1" and still in the 120s weight-wise," she says of her dad, who was battling pancreatic cancer but has been recovering for about four months. "It's been a long journey for going on a year and a half now."
Rosario adds, "We're just in our gratitude. You know, if we were in that moment where he was going back and forth to his chemo in the middle of this quarantine; that would be really scary. But luckily, it's just about being here and trying to feed him six meals a day and get him to gain some weight. So, I've just been on that, sort of, nursing duty. ...So that was sort of the dedication during this quarantine, to take care of him."
The 40-year-old actress says she's making "really careful decisions" during the time that she's staying with her parents.
"Both of my parents are high risk. I just want to do anything and everything we can in this next year or year and a half, whatever period it is, of just being as safe as possible," she explains.
Rosario says she's just thankful to be with her family during such a trying time. "I'm sitting here grateful that I can take care of my parents, and that I can protect them," she tells ET.
For more with Rosario, check out all 10 episodes of her USA crime thriller, Briarpatch, which is available to stream. The show is about a Washington D.C. investigator, Allegra Dill (Rosario Dawson), who returns home to her border town in Texas to solve the death of her sister.
"I felt really empowered getting the opportunity to bring this character to life. To have my vision for her trusted," Rosario says of the role. "...There was a lot of thought that went into every beat of her energy and her style and her vibe."
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