Rita Moreno may also turn 93 in December, but the legendary EGOT winner remains interested in returning to the stage.
“I don’t miss it regularly, but I usually do,” Moreno says over Zoom from her home in Northern California. “I play Alexa all the time because I love music and I love jazz. I rarely start singing along with them and playing the song, and I say to myself, ‘I feel like you miss this.’ There is always an opportunity to do it again. I mean, singing, you can do it. You won’t be able to dance. My knees were just screaming and screaming for help.”
She continues: “I will be cleaning a piece of furniture, I will put the cloth on the floor and I will just stand there and perform. I really like acting. I’m a ham bone.”
Moreno is just days away from being honored with the Icon Award at the Academy Museum’s fourth annual Gala in Los Angeles. Also being feted during the star-studded event on October 19th will be Quentin Tarantino with the Luminary Award and Paul Mescal with the Vantage Award. (Moreno will also appear in the museum’s screening of the original “West Side Story” on Oct. 16, followed by an onstage conversation.)
What engages thoughts when you hear the word “icon”?
I consider people like Quentin Tarantino. He’s a genius. There are specific people whose work I simply adore. Along with Quentin, I also love Steven Spielberg’s work. Considering what he has released, each film is totally different. “ET” is one of my favorite films of all time. He is also a genius.
And Paul Mescal is only 28 years old.
How brave of him – that son of a bitch!
What’s your advice for a 28-year-old in the company?
Are you kidding? I’ll shut up for now. I just want to say things like (Moreno deepens his voice), “Hey, bro.”
What has been your secret for having this profession and being almost 93 years out of date?
Isn’t this surprising? I ask myself this regularly. I do not provide you with a solution. I just often say, “You’re a lucky bitch.”
That could be the title of your next documentary, “Rita Moreno: You’re a Fortunate Bitch”.
That will be nice, won’t it?
But it’s actually not just luck.
In fact, it’s bigger than that. You can’t do away with these kinds of—let’s name them—thanks, and never feel something very personal and deep and very serious. I already passed. If I let myself get as serious as I feel and emotional as I feel in my acceptance speech, it would be an absolute shame because I would cry the entire time for five or 10 whole minutes. I can’t let that happen. I would like to point out that the upper part of Rita and the upper part of me really has to do with humor. I really like being humorous. I really like making people laugh. For me this is a gift, to really amuse people, so that they find you charming. I’m happy to have this high quality in me. I might be vain enough to say that.
What do you remember most about walking on set for the first day of filming (the original) “West Side Story?”
I was thrilled. I don’t even know if I can clarify anything, but I have a bigger story to tell you. I almost didn’t play Anita in “West Facet Story.” So I displayed reviews. Everyone with brown hair and brown eyes did a screening check, and I think I did a few of them. I finally bought the part and was simply ecstatic. I assumed, “This will really get me seen. This could be a beautiful half, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I used to get emotional about things. I run as soon as I get the part, go to the music store and buy the “West Facet Story” rating so I can read everything I have to learn well in advance so I can read it backwards in my sleep. And I’m going to “America” and to my absolute shock, the line goes like this, “Puerto Rico, you ugly island, island of tropical diseases,” and I checked out that replica and stared at it for a long time. , and I assumed, “Oh my God, I can’t try that. I can’t make these sentences. I can’t try that. I can’t try that with my parents. And the next really horrible thing I would have to name my agent who killed himself for this, made personal sacrifices for this and tell him, and how would he react? I knew what would happen. He would start yelling at me and say, “Are you crazy? This is the first part of the century.” As that day approached, I bought a stash of the “West Facet Story” script with all the revamps and rewrites and things like that. I immediately went to the back of “America,” read it, and it said, “Puerto Rico, the devotion of my heart, let it sink back into the ocean,” rewrite, not the “island of tropical diseases.”
Is there a job you bought that you really needed?
Oh, there are many roles, but they all went to Meryl Streep. What can I say? Every time someone says, “Is there a job you’d like?” I say, “Yes, something Meryl Streep did.”
When will you and Meryl Streep do something together?
Oh, only God knows.
Who would you continue to enjoy working with?
Any kind of great woman. Julianne Moore, she is an exceptional actress. Emma Stone, what a beautiful actress. She surprises us. When an actor can try that on you, when an actor can shock you, that’s the best.
Have you ever thought about retiring?
What does this imply? I don’t know what that implies. Retire? Not acting? As long as I could make people laugh or cry as an artist, of course not, I’m not leaving. But not only that, I really like what I do. And I really like actors. I really like artists. When I meet someone I love, I get that silly expression of adoration. It’s real. I will provide you with an example. My daughter (Fernanda Luisa Gordon) and I went to the Self-importance Truthful Oscar party last year. We were walking and I saw Lenny Kravitz, and I said to Fernanda: “Let’s say hi there”. What I usually do then is say, “Hi. I love your work. My name is Rita Moreno. How are you?” I never assume people know who I am. He gets down on one knee. He drops to one knee. And he not only goes there, but he stands there and hugs my knees. And he says, “You don’t have any thoughts.” .And he kept talking about how much he admired me and my work and how much I mean to his parents. And he’s holding my hand and kissing it.
The last time we spoke was when the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. How are you feeling about the elections right now?
Depressed, and then generally feeling great because of this miracle, but I just don’t know if (Kamala Harris) had enough time. Look what she achieved very quickly. It’s surprising. But for the rest of the way, who knows? Even though you hear about Latinos withdrawing their vote, I just can’t think about it. I can’t consider that. But there’s something about this guy, this horrible guy that makes people feel like he’s manly, which is just because he speaks his mind in the most obscene way. Many people assume this is manly. I need to scream to the world, “No, no, no, no. You are misinterpreting this so-called bravado. This is stupidity. Remember the stupidity on our part? This is the personification of evil, in fact. I believe not only this man but also his minions, I think they are mentally ill. I’m in suspense.
This interview has been edited for length and readability.
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