Go behind the scenes of Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It to learn how Rita Moreno is a quintessential American success story.
Written Features
Rita Moreno biography and timeline
The divided states of “America” – why Rita Moreno objected to West Side Story’s original lyrics
Rita Moreno won her EGOT status with these 4 roles
5 Rita Moreno roles you may have forgotten
3 life lessons from Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno Q&A: Her career from Puerto Rico to Hollywood
Mariem Pérez Riera’s Director’s Statement
Declaración de la Directora Mariem Pérez Riera
Our Rita: How Rita Moreno’s Puerto Rican roots changed American culture
Video Features
Clip | How Rita Moreno became a social activist
Clip | Rita Moreno gives one of the shortest Oscars speeches ever
Clip | Rita Moreno on facing sexism in the industry
Clip | Rita Moreno’s mother inspired her “One Day at a Time” role
Clip | Behind the Scenes | Rita Moreno
Clip | Lin-Manuel Miranda on his first viewing of “West Side Story”
TRANSCRIPT
- Rita, she is a diva, girl (laughs) in the best sense of the word.
- Rita Mareno is an original.
She can't help but be that.
- She was at Latina, like me, and she made me feel like women could do anything because she did.
- I may be petite, but I'm as big as your get.
(crowd cheering) - Rita Moreno is a quintessential American success story.
(crowd cheering and applauding) As an EGOT winner, who's won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony the biggest challenge in telling Rita Moreno's story is to try to encapsulate her incredible career.
♪ Hey ♪ (gentle music) - I made a promise to myself that I was going to go through with a documentary, that I would be as truthful as I could possibly be.
- She really wanted to do a documentary that talks more about who she really is and her insecurities.
Through Rita, we get to understand what it means to be a woman in Hollywood, when it was normal to be harassed as a woman, and it was normal to be viewed as a second class.
- I managed to put up with so much bad behavior on the part of many men.
It's a damaging thing, rage, because it'll stop me.
(dramatic music) And I don't want to be stopped.
(crowd cheering) - [Michael] When you learn her story and all the obstacles she conquered, what comes out is inspiration.
- I think it's important to know her story because it shows how much we have accomplished as women through her and through other women like her.
- If we thought there was no place for us in this world of the arts that we wanted to get into, we could look up and see Rita and say, okay, well she could do it.
How close can I get?
(gentle music)
