Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/216003
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: PARAMOUNT PICTURES/GETTY IMAGES; WILLIAM LOVELACE/GETTY IMAGES; PBS; RICHARD FRASIER not stop crying. The boys felt just awful. I couldn't stop. I'd calm down and then I'd start crying again. We called an early lunch because I just went to pieces. KH: Well it was a great scene and part of the power of it is when your character pulls herself together. RM: [In a low voice] Don't you touch me. You know where I got that reading? I said to myself, how would Marlon [Brando] say this? Normally it's said on stage [screaming] Don't you touch me! And I thought, wouldn't it be interesting to go the other way. I'm telling you, I think that one line is what got me the Oscar. KH: I can't wait to hear your version of "and the winner is…" RM: Oh gosh. When Rock Hudson called my name … I hurried down the aisle because I was way back, and I said to myself, "Don't run. It's undignified." I was absolutely unprepared for winning. I was so sure Judy Garland was going to win for Judgment at Nuremberg. I go up to the stage and deliver one of the worst acceptance speeches ever. I said, "I can't believe it. Good lord ... I leave you with that." Joan Crawford was the co-emcee that year. I run into the wings and into her outstretched arms. I had never met her. There's a photographer right there. She embraces me and the photographer says, "Can I see Rita's face?" She's built like a linebacker and my face is hidden, and she says, "But she's so upset. She's so upset." And I'm mumbling into her chest, "I'm not upset, I'm not upset." They had to wrest her fingers from me to turn me around for the photo. I had heard she was famous for writing notes, and sure enough, a week later, I get a note from her on her stationary. "My darling Rita, how incredibly generous it was for you to stop by and talk to me after such an emotional moment in your life." Above, left: Early films such as The Vagabond King (1956) often cast Moreno as an exotic ethnic beauty. Center: Moreno and George Chakiris at the Academy Awards in 1962. Moreno won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in West Side Story. She did not work in film for seven years after she won. Right: A generation grew up watching Moreno on The Electric Company in the 1970s on PBS. Below left: President Barack Obama greets Moreno to present the 2009 National Medal of Arts, the nation's highest honor for artistic excellence. KH: I find this part fascinating. You win the Oscar … and then you didn't do a movie for … RM: Seven years. What happened is that nothing was offered and then finally a few little dribbles came in to do a couple of gang movies — B-movies. And I decided, I'm out of there, I've done this. KH: Yeah, I've been there. RM: That's all I was offered. And I said nope, I don't care if I don't work another SAGAFTRA.org 40-47_rita_v9.indd 43 | Fall 2013 | SAG-AFTRA 43 11/13/13 6:52 PM