“Nouns have become my mortal enemy,” Rita Moreno, who starred in “West Side Story” and “One Day at a Time,” joked earlier this week. “That’s what’s happened, but that’s the worst that’s happened.”
Now eighty-nine, Moreno may have won an Emmy, a Tony, a Grammy, and an Oscar—plus virtually every other honor an entertainer can receive—but a senior citizen with a fading memory was one role that still seemed like a stretch. In an hour-long conversation with the New Yorker staff writer Michael Schulman, Moreno recalled details that spanned nearly all of her nine decades, from her move to the Bronx from Puerto Rico as a five-year-old (by ship, in steerage, during a storm) to where she got the dress she wore to accept her 1962 Academy Award (on a night off from shooting a war drama in the Philippines, typecast as “yet another sad Pacific Island person”).
Moreno was speaking with Schulman as part of The New Yorker Live, a digital event series held each month exclusively for subscribers to the magazine. As part of their conversation, Moreno revisited her professional triumphs, as well as the stereotyping and sexism she faced in Hollywood. “Anita was the only Hispanic character that I ever played who had a sense of dignity,” Moreno said, referring to the “West Side Story” role for which she won her Oscar.
With her ninetieth birthday on the horizon, Moreno is preparing for the release of two films that might serve as a sort of dual capstone to her career: Steven Spielberg’s big-screen adaptation of “West Side Story” (she plays a different character this time), and “Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It,” a documentary about her own life and career, executive-produced by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Norman Lear. Excerpts screened during The New Yorker Live capture Moreno’s ardent activism for Latino rights and racial equality, and inspired her to share with Schulman a memory of being so close to Martin Luther King, Jr., during the March on Washington that she could hear some fateful instructions he received while delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech.
In the clip above, you can view highlights of the New Yorker Live discussion, including Moreno’s recollections of the skin-darkening makeup she was asked to wear in “West Side Story,” and how she ended up dating Elvis. Subscribers to The New Yorker can watch the full conversation, as well as all previous installments of The New Yorker Live, at newyorker.com/live. Check the page in the weeks ahead for details about upcoming events, and subscribe to gain access.
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