Life Lessons from Rita Moreno

Welcome to Life Lessons. This week, we’re flipping through the pages of Interview‘s Puerto Rico-themed 1975 issue. Gracing the cover is none other than Rita Moreno—the Hollywood star who made a name for herself as Anita in 1961’s West Side Story. Moreno, who was also the first Latinx actor to win an Academy Award, is in good company: at the 2022 Academy Awards, Ariana DeBose became the first queer actor of color to take home an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic. On our 1975 cover, Moreno—who is one of just 16 EGOT winners—flashes her signature smile in an illustration by the Puerto Rican illustrator (and close friend of Andy Warhol’s) Antonio Lopez. Moreno, then 43-years-old, spoke with Warhol over dinner for her cover feature, fresh off her performance as Googie Gomez in The Ritz. So sit back, grab a pen—you just might learn a thing or two.

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“Jed Johnson! If that isn’t the W.A.S.P name of the year.”

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“I don’t believe in god, I don’t feel guilty, and I don’t think god’s going to strike me dead. When I got over that, I really got over that. No superstitions whatsoever. I’ll walk under ladders, let black cats walk in front of my path, whistle in dressing rooms.”

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“I have to be very careful because I’m very tiny and I have a very Latin behind. And that’s where it all goes! Isn’t that wonderful?”

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“Do you know that my first day at M.G.M., which was the studio I signed at, I met all of the top stars? My first day, I met Gable, I met Bogart, I met Oscar Levant, I met Elizabeth Taylor, I met Esther Williams, I met Lana Turner, I met Ann Miller.”

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[The Ritz] This is the show that wouldn’t die, because we were a marginal kind of success until I got the Tony. Then when I got it, business literally [A champagne cork pops] doubled! I wouldn’t have believed it and I foolishly said, ‘Oh, nobody’s that dumb! They’re not going to come just because I won a Tony!’ They’re that dumb. I’m talking about middle-class people in Long island who kept thinking, ‘Oh, it’s a dirty gay show.'”

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“There’s only one reason for an actor to go to a party—I did it a lot after I did Carnal Knowledge because I looked terrible in it. I looked very much older because I was deliberately photographed very harshly. And when I saw the screening, I thought, ‘Oh, shit, I’m not going to work for another 20 years. I better be seen looking good.’ So—and I’m not a party-goer—my husband and I went to everything we were invited to for the next six months. To let them know I still looked alright!”

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“Am I here for the weekend?! My dear. I’m working my ass off next door! I have shows on Saturday and Sunday. When we opened the show, because we were only a marginal hit, Thursday was our worst business day. So the producer smartly said, ‘Let’s make Thursday our dark day.'”

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“I’d love to do concerts as opposed to a nightclub. Because if I do concerts, I can do many different things for a long period of time. With night clubs, you have to limit your time. And I have many, many ideas. For one thing, I want sets.”

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 “I could do Vegas, I could do concerts—I’d love a million boys coming out in little white outfits.”