Feb 22, 2019
They contend we should never accommodate your idols. Whoever pronounced that has never met Rita Moreno.
The initial time we met Rita was during a imagination cooking event. You know, a kind with lots of turn tables and clinking eyeglasses and large names and common catering. And even in a room full of power-players there was a different, enchanting kind of appetite around Rita. You can’t not know she’s in a room. Eyes are pulled in her instruction like magnets. She customarily has that “thing.”
I didn’t know Rita would be during this dinner. But it felt like kismet. After 10 years as a operative comedy writer—an feat for anyone in a business, many reduction a Latinx woman—I was finally removing a possibility to tell my possess story on screen. we was operative with Norman Lear to reimagine his 1975 comedy One Day during a Time (with Mike Royce) by infusing it with stories from my possess Cuban-American upbringing. And literally given a impulse we initial saw Rita on shade she reminded me of my mom. So many so that when I’d report my mom to people I’d say, “My mom, design Rita Moreno…” afterwards continue to tell a story. In fact, this is what we told Norman when revelation him stories about my family. And he pronounced he’d always wanted to work with Rita. Norman knew Rita, and he brought me as his guest that night. And when we saw that she was there we couldn’t trust it. we knew this was an event to make certain Rita played my mom on a show. She customarily HAD to.
Norman introduced us. He told her we’d like to work with her. She was funny, sexy, self-deprecating. She said, “That sounds customarily wonderful. Let’s pronounce more.” we scarcely fainted. Was this Unequivocally happening? A few weeks later, she concluded to play Lydia Riera, a larger-than-life amalgam of my mom and grandmother. (My grandmother’s lass name was Lydia Riera.) What Rita has finished with Lydia, a impression we knew so closely and cared about so deeply, is zero brief of astonishing. She finished it her own, since she’s Rita Moreno, after all.
Rita has always been an statue to me—a stunning, badass Latina who took Hollywood by charge during a time when all a contingency were built opposite her. She starred in movies. Big ones. Major suit pictures. She antiquated Elvis. She had a prolonged charge with Marlon Brando. Louis B. Mayer called her a “Hispanic Elizabeth Taylor.” She’s won all of a awards. And we meant all of them—she’s one of customarily 15 people in a universe to EGOT! She IS goals. The suspicion of her is incomparable than life.
But when we see someone as a legend, it can forestall we from observant them as human. I’ve worked alongside Rita for 3 years now. It took time for me to see her entirely as who she is. But once we did, we detected a lady who is deeply human: ethereal yet strong, supportive yet a warrior by and through, and possessing a wit and attract that one can customarily be innate with. we detected someone who meant some-more to me than a legend. And now, to a distraction of my younger self, Rita Moreno is my friend.
So, if we ever do accommodate your idol, we wish that they’re half as poetic as Rita Moreno.
To me and so many other people on this planet, we are a legend. But removing to know a lady Rita Moreno has been so many some-more delicious. Because when somebody is a legend, they’re not unequivocally human. It obscures all a smashing tellurian intricacies of who they are. Instead, we put all of your hopes and dreams on that person.
You know what? That’s customarily such a weight on a supposed legend. Because we can see people looking during we in a unequivocally opposite approach than they would demeanour during others. And it’s kind of bizarre, since that’s not what we am. we am not a legend.
But we are! I’ve seen people start tears when they accommodate you. How do we determine that?
You know what? I’ll tell we a story. Quite a while ago, we was being interviewed on radio and we was asked about my self-murder attempt. we spoke about it unequivocally overtly since we feel it’s like a use to people who are feeling horrific and unfortunate and all that kind of stuff. So we was articulate about it overtly and simply, and we pronounced something to a sequence of, “If there are any of we examination who are considering such a thing, please, we desire you, consider about your mom, your child. Call somebody, call anybody. It is not something we did and wish we had, yet it didn’t even start to me since we was so horribly miserable, and all we could consider of was my pain. It creates no a disproportion possibly it’s a clergyman or an uncle or someone who runs a grocery store, customarily pronounce to somebody.”
About dual months after we was in a run of a Waldorf Astoria. As I’m walking in, we see a lady approach down during a other finish of a run burst adult and down and call during me. we go to hail her and we thought, Oh, she’s a fan. Then she falls on me and starts to weep. And she keeps saying, “Thank you, appreciate you, appreciate you,” and we have no suspicion what she’s articulate about. So we suspicion I’d customarily reason her, I’ll welcome her. Something awful has happened to her. we wasn’t in a precipitate or anything, so we hold her. She finally calms down and says, “I watched we on that radio show, and we was considering holding my life, and we can never, ever appreciate we adequate for vocalization to me.”
And afterwards we start to cry. So you’re asking, how does it feel? It’s a outrageous shortcoming and I’m very, very, unequivocally responsive of that during all times. we consider of myself as a kind person, and that’s unequivocally critical to me, since a lot of people were not kind to me. It’s something that’s always on my mind, we know? we need to always be in hold with my humanity.
I’d adore for we to pronounce about entrance from Puerto Rico and your tour here. Where did we get a strength to persevere by that?
I consider that some people are genetically customarily strong. we unequivocally trust that my mom was like that. On a other hand, maybe you’re forced to be that approach since we comprehend you’re possibly going to penetrate or swim, and a choice we make determines a kind of chairman we become. But we consider we did get it from my mom. She had huge fortitude. My god, she came to this nation on her own, on a ship. She was a immature woman, she doesn’t pronounce English. She finds herself a pursuit sewing in a sweatshop, like many Puerto Rican women. we have some of those genes. Though we consider we fell detached many some-more mostly than she did, yet afterwards that’s since we had some advantages, and when we have some advantages, we turn some-more supportive to disadvantages.
You’ve pronounced since your mom was unequivocally young, in a approach we dual were some-more like girlfriends? For many people that don’t know, there’s a pleasing print of we and your mom in a opening credits of One Day during a Time—and we demeanour like sisters.
She was unequivocally young. She had me when she was 17. we don’t even know if she was married during a time. And we know, we subsequently found out some dreadfully unfortunate things, that she wouldn’t tell me for years and years and years and years since she was so ashamed. But apparently, her brothers abused her sexually. She wouldn’t contend what, yet she mentioned a bottle. we consider of all that some-more and some-more each day, since we do consider about genocide now. I’m in a third act of my life and it’s unequivocally critical for me to be picturesque and face things. I’m constantly observant to Fernanda [my daughter], “If there’s anything we need to contend to me, contend it now. Don’t spend your life woeful that we didn’t share something with me.”
Was there anything that we didn’t get to contend to your mom before she died, that we wanted to contend to her?
Tons of things, tons of things. How many we desired her. we mean, we did, and we showed it by doing things for her, yet she was also married to a genuine terrible male in her final marriage. A Jon Burge type, and we customarily wish that we had been means to pierce her into my house. But we knew that my father would customarily not live with that. You know, that’s such a Latino thing, where we have—
Yeah, we know what you’re going to say. we grew adult with my grandma and grandpa. Abuelo and Abuela lived with us until we went off to college.
And that’s what we wanted to do with my mom, to get absolved of her terrible husband. But it customarily wasn’t meant to be, so we took caring of them by bringing them here, adult north from L.A., and put them into a comparison home unequivocally nearby where we live now. It was unequivocally a good one and all that, yet that’s not unequivocally what she wanted. we skip her so much. The comparison we get a some-more we skip her. we feel that we could have finished some-more for her. When we was a small girl, we would contend in Spanish, “When I’m a large film star, I’m going to buy we a house, I’m going to buy we a car, and I’m going to buy we a mink coat.” we bought her a residence eventually, and we bought her a car. But we didn’t buy a mink coat. we didn’t wish to kill an animal. [Laughs]
She contingency have been so unapproachable of we though, Rita, my god.
I’m certain you’ve seen a impulse when they call my name in a [1962] Oscars. She’s right behind me, and she grabs me and hugs me. It’s so brief when she does that, that we unequivocally have to see it several times, yet that’s my mommy.
You’ve pronounced we wanted to be a film star for as prolonged as we can remember. Where do we consider that came from?
I consider some things are inherent factors. we was dancing and interesting from a time we was a small girl. we would dance for Justino, my grandpa, and he would say, “Rosinita”—that’s what he called me, that we love—”Rosinita, un bailecito, una rhumba.” And he would put on a record, and I’d shake my small plunder all over a vital room of a small small house. we desired a attention. we remember meditative to myself, This is nice. I’m being desired customarily since I’m jolt my small booty? Wow.
You’re finished with certain genes, and my mom was a unequivocally joyous person. She desired parties, she desired to dance, and she would take a occasional shot of rum down her throat. She was always creation smashing dinners and things like that, she was customarily a miraculous person. Of course, she kick a shit out of me sometimes. But that’s how we are when we come from those kind of countries.
Right, that’s how we grew up.
It’s humorous since that’s one thing we never unequivocally forgave her for. She would take a tag and pound me on a legs when she was unfortunate about something that we had finished or said. Or she would swat me on a conduct with her knuckles, that was such a detriment of dignity. There was something so wanton about that, and we was a unequivocally supportive small girl. These things still stay with me, and we mean, Jesus, I’m 87.
Your arise is flattering amazing, since there were not, I’m assuming, a lot of Latinas perplexing to come up. Did we see many other women of tone flourishing up?
This was before a Puerto Rican diaspora, so when my mom forsaken me off during kindergarten, there were no Latin kids. we mean, not one in my class—not one.
So what did a kids make of you?
I couldn’t even tell you. we don’t know. All they knew was that there was this small lady who cried a lot, and that she didn’t pronounce English. It’s substantially since we schooled English so fast and we schooled it well. Because we had to be means to demonstrate myself. It’s one of a reasons I’ve always appreciated language. we pronounce improved English than a lot of Americans.
When we were auditioning, I’d suppose there weren’t a lot of other Puerto Rican girls during those bedrooms with you. Were your initial auditions for Caucasian roles?
Here’s how we did things in that time, when we wanted to get an representative or we wanted to get a job: I’d put on my prosaic boots and I’d literally travel and revisit these small agencies. we was 13, 14, 15 and we would go there, accommodate a receptionist, and I’d say, “I would like to leave my design and my resume with you.” we consider a resume was about dual sentences. Once in a while, we would get a gig dancing, and small by little, some of a agencies began to know me. And eventually that led to being in my unequivocally initial movie, So Young, So Bad—the pretension of that my representative could never get right. It was so embarrassing. He’d say, “Oh yeah, yeah, she did this movie, So Good, So Bad, So Young.” He was unequivocally brief and he had a pointy head. He was called Bullets Durgom.
So we finally get a movie—then what do we do? What’s your journey?
A talent executive saw me perform in a uncover that my dancing propagandize had put together. And a audience, of course, was comprised of zero yet relatives. we mean, who else is going to go? But this male was a unequivocally correct fellow. He was going to these things since we never know who you’re going to see. He saw me do my Spanish dance with castanets, and he came backstage afterward, found my mom, gave her his card, and he said, “The time isn’t right customarily now, yet we will be in hold with we now and afterwards since we consider Rosita has a future.” I’ve never lost his name: Dudley Wilkinson. And that’s how it started. At initial he couldn’t call since we didn’t have a phone. We couldn’t means it. But when we got a phone, my mom called him and gave him a phone number, and he called about 6 or 8 months later. He said, “Louis B. Mayer is entrance into town.”—This is a male who ran MGM Studios, Metro, Goldwyn, Mayer—”And we would like Rosita to come accommodate him.”
An appointment was made: We were going to see him during a Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and a humorous thing is, we’d never even listened of that hotel. we mean, we never leave your neighborhood, right? So we go to a table and [my mom] says, “I wish to see Louis B. Mayer.” And a male looked very, unequivocally harshly during us, as yet we were a rabble. He said, “He’s in a penthouse.” She said, “The penthouse, yet what is that?” And he said, “When we get into a elevator, we customarily demeanour for PH. You know PH?” She said, “Yes.” So we get into a conveyor and she looks for PH and presses a button, and it opens adult into a man’s penthouse. And there he is, all five-feet-four of him. He was like a sorceress in a Wizard of Oz.
I chose Elizabeth Taylor as my purpose indication since she was kind of my age and we did my best to demeanour like her: a hairdo, a eyebrows, all of that. we had been costumed by my mom, padded on my chest—you know, customarily all bound up. And he takes my hand, he talks to me for a few minutes, and afterwards he says, “My god, she looks like a Spanish Elizabeth Taylor!” Ta-dum! Six months after we was in Hollywood. My mom rented a small lodge in Culver City, where MGM was, since we didn’t drive.
Would we travel to a studio?
I walked to a fucking studio, and it was murdering me. We were flattering close, yet it was still a prolonged walk. We finally got a small car, a unequivocally aged small rattletrap, yet during slightest we could expostulate to a studio.
It’s crazy that that’s now a studio where we fire One Day during a Time.
Yes, of course, it’s crazy! When we went there for a initial day during read, we immediately looked adult during theatre 25 since that’s where all a low-pitched numbers were finished during MGM. we mean, we wish to pronounce about déjà vu.
When we watch movies, we see we in everything. we was examination Singin’ in a Rain going, “Oh my god, there’s Rita!”
And that was a unequivocally suggestive film for me since we was personification a non-ethnic character, that we could charge to Gene Kelly. Gene was a unequivocally domestic guy, and as distant as he was concerned, people didn’t have color. And so we played Zelda Zander, a film star. we customarily had, we think, about 3 or 4 scenes, so we spent roughly each singular day visiting a set, to see my hero. This small Puerto Rican girl, since that’s how we saw myself.
I have to tell we that when we got my unequivocally initial fan letter, we wrote behind a 10-page minute revelation her all a smashing things we felt, and how stirring it was, and all that kind of stuff. Because there was nobody to tell it to! That’s in a box somewhere. Somebody needs to find that letter. I’d adore to review it.
In your autobiography, we write about how, even after we won a Academy Award, a tools we were offering were still stereotypes.
Oh my god, that was heartbreaking. Not customarily did we get a Academy Award, we got a Golden Globe too. And afterwards we did not do another film for 7 years. Mostly since we incited down squad stuff, where it was West Side Story in a many terrible way. But, by a way, we wasn’t being offering many of that either. It’s not like producers were knocking my doorway down for me to do a squad movie. So we said, “No, we have an Oscar now, we have a Golden Globe, and we am not going to do this anymore.” And ha-ha, we showed them—I didn’t do a film for 7 years. The initial film we did after that was Popi, a film with Alan Arkin.
And that wasn’t that prolonged ago! They had we personification opposite ethnicities, like a local lady or personification Asian as Tuptim in The King and I.
Oh, I’ll tell we a story about Tuptim. What happened with Tuptim was that we was now on a agreement to Fox. You know how we kill yourself perplexing to get jobs? This one was simple: we was on a cover of LIFE repository and [Fox studio head] Darryl F. Zanuck said, “Who is that girl? Get me that girl.” we meant it, this business is crazy. Anyway, when we was on agreement to Fox, they were going to do The King and I, and they told me they wanted me to exam for a partial of Tuptim. And we was like, “Fine, okay.” we complicated a partial and went in to test. There were other girls in a room contrast for Tuptim too, one of whom was perfect, positively ideal for a role. It was a lady named France Nuyen—beautiful, gorgeous, she still is—who was Vietnamese and French. we thought, Oh well, she’s going to get it, as she should. But we did my test, and theory who got a part? Me. And I’ve always felt guilty about that since we knew she unequivocally should have gotten it. But we got it since we was a agreement player.
How do we conflict to #MeToo and Time’s Up, carrying unequivocally lived by a thick of group working badly in Hollywood?
I am so anxious that this has happened—and that this has happened in my lifetime, we know? Let’s face it, we am in a third act of my life here, and when we see a immature lady behaving in a approach that says, “I have value, we am worthy,” it customarily moves to me to tears since we never suspicion we would see that day happen. So even yet it didn’t occur for me, it’s function now, and we am thrilled. But I’m still hostile of these immature women too. we think, I could have been that, yet we didn’t get a break.
It’s extraordinary to hear somebody with your implausible physique of work still feel that way. Because we do have a extensive physique of work.
I do, yet we have to hunt for it a small bit, we know? It’s not like we was doing cinema each dual minutes. we wasn’t. And what was always so distressing to me was this: I’d be out of work for utterly some time, and I’d get so vexed and sad, and afterwards my representative would call and say, “I’m promulgation we a script.” And I’d be so happy—for about dual hours. Because afterwards I’d review a script, and a impression is some lady who can hardly pronounce English. Again.
And we remember when we was in my sixties, we went to see a executive meditative that we was going to review for one part, yet it incited out to be for another part. They wanted me to try-out for a Mexican whorehouse dame who has 3 lines of dialogue, in Spanish. we was in my sixties and we had won all those smashing awards! And we was still followed by this kind of thing a good partial of my life. It pennyless my heart!
I got to see Norman Lear for a initial time when we auditioned for P.O.P. [an eventually unsuccessful commander in 1984]. we didn’t know him, yet he knew of me. And he said, “What are we doing here?” we said, “I’m here to review for a partial of [Charlie Durney’s] wife.” And he looks during me, since I’ve never looked my age anyway, and he says, “You could never be Charlie Durney’s wife. You demeanour approach too young. ” we said, “But I’m 60.” He said, “Honey, goodbye. No.” He was unequivocally kind, unequivocally sweet. But afterwards we spent an hour in my automobile customarily great since we hadn’t finished anything for a integrate of years.
You once wrote that your agents didn’t wish we to do a children’s radio uncover The Electric Company. And that’s how we initial saw we on screen! we was so struck by how we looked like my mom, like somebody from my family. To see one of my people on TV, training me how to read? It felt incredible.
Well, we used to watch Sesame Street with Fernanda, and Fernanda was one of those demure readers—she customarily wasn’t interested. But she desired Sesame Street, so we watched that together each singular day. we would lay on one of her small chairs with her, and we’d watch a Electric Company.
At 87, what are we many unapproachable of?
That I’m still employed.
