Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/216003
R ita Moreno has lived a storied life, from her early years in Puerto Rico to the studios of Hollywood. The 50th Life Achievement honoree sat down with SAG-AFTRA National President Ken Howard to share stories of her decades-long career. 42 SAG-AFTRA 40-47_rita_v9.indd 42 KH: You got your SAG card. RM: I got my SAG card: It was 60 years ago now. I was doing an Army training film. I was an extra on a beach in a bathing suit. KH: What was your first film under contract? RM: Under contract was The Toast of New Orleans. THat was my first and I was thrilled beyond words. [While making films at MGM] I spent every single day that I wasn't working on other sound stages. I would go get dressed up, put on some cute little outfit and go to the studio and visit sets … And then to my absolute amazement, Gene Kelly asked me to do a small role in Singin' in the Rain. He gave me the part of an American girl. And that was the last film I did for MGM. And then I was dropped, which was the end of my life, I thought. KH: What did you do? RM: THen followed many tears and heartbreak, [but eventually] I got another contract with 20th Century Fox. THere I did a few films. I did The King and I. It was a gorgeous movie. KH: You're wonderful in that. Certain performers are timeless when you watch them. You're like that in that movie and in a lot of things — always very present and very real and just enchanting. RM: It was a wonderful experience. It was a film where I got to meet an absolute genius, the only genius I've ever known, and that's Jerome Robbins. In fact, I did his only two films, The King and I and West Side Story. KH: Obviously I wanted to talk about West Side Story. It's a terrific film. A fan question: THe scene in the drugstore, where your character is attacked, to me it had a kind of spontaneity and improvisational quality. THere was something very real about it. RM: It's a near-rape scene. And that's the scene where I, Rita, broke down and we had to stop shooting for a while. We had done it over and over and I just could | Fall 2013 | SAGAFTRA.org 11/13/13 6:52 PM CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PARAMOUNT PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES; WILLIAM LOVELACE/GETTY IMAGES; PBS; RICHARD FRASIER KEN HOWARD: Rita, I am so glad you are the recipient this year and it's great to be able to chat with you. I want to go all the way back if I may and just talk a bit about the beginnings for your love for performing. RITA MORENO: I used to dance for Grandpa [in Puerto Rico]. I was 3, 4, 5 years old and he'd put on a record … and he would say "Rosita bailar!" And I would jump around the room and shake my little bootie. It just seemed to be the most natural thing in the world. KH: You have mentioned the change coming to New York — you left a world of Technicolor and now it was gray and dark. RM: Oh the contrast was absolutely shocking. My mother … made a decision on her own that she wanted life to be better for her and for me. She took a ship to this country, not speaking a word of English. In a way, my story is really her story. She stayed with an aunt in a ghetto apartment and got a job sewing in a sweatshop. And she did that for a number of months until she had made enough money … to retrieve me. It's an astonishing story. She could not have been more than 20. KH: So now you're a young girl in New York — would it be fair to say the dancing and singing were your outlet? RM: When I did my first performance, which was in a Greenwich Village nightclub with my dance teacher, and I saw the smiles on people's faces and heard the applause, I thought, "THis is what I want to do for the rest of my life." KH: You did some theater as a teenager, which is giving you some experience. RM: I'm getting some. And I'm working with some wonderful actors. And I'm listening and absorbing as much as I can. It didn't occur to me to go to an acting class. We had dance class and I sang because I liked to sing and I had a good voice. But acting class never even occurred to me. So whatever I did was instinctive. KH: When was the first time you went to Hollywood? RM: I was 17 years old on a contract to MGM Studios, which was the studio of the dreams of any young person who sang and danced because it was the musical studio. Other studios made musicals but none of them usually compared to MGM. MGM had Gene Kelly, Ann Miller, Judy Garland, Fred Astaire. KH: And Elizabeth Taylor. You were considered, at the time, to be a Hispanic Elizabeth Taylor. RM: I made Elizabeth Taylor my role model because there weren't any Hispanic people [in Hollywood]. THere was no one. So I needed to find someone I wanted to emulate and it turned out to be Elizabeth Taylor. And indeed, some of the pictures [of me] kind of resembled her.