bjbjLULU JEFFREY BROWN: And finally tonight, a portrait of the performer now telling her
own story. Our report is a joint production with KQED San Francisco and told by NewsHour
correspondent Spencer Michels. (SINGING) SPENCER MICHELS: At nearly 80, Rita Moreno is back
on stage, getting ready to reprise her life and career in her one-woman show, "Life Without
Makeup." She's rehearsing song-and-dance numbers she made famous decades ago, including her
role of Anita in the 1961 film "West Side Story," for which she won an Academy Award.
And after a roller-coaster career, where she broke cultural and ethnic barriers -- not
without pain -- she shows no signs of slowing down in this production by the Berkeley Repertory
Theatre. RITA MORENO, actress: My God, I'm a show business animal. I wouldn't have it
any other way. I'm very proud -- proud of the awards that I have earned. And notice
I say earned. I -- I love meeting movie stars. You know, I just wet my pants when I meet
somebody that I just adore. SPENCER MICHELS: I talked with Moreno in her house high in
the Berkeley Hills, where she and her late husband took refuge from the Hollywood scene.
Reminders of her career and of the awards she won are everywhere. It's a far cry from
Puerto Rico, where she was born, or the barrios in the Bronx, where she moved as a child.
RITA MORENO: And I found out soon enough that it wasn't a good thing to be from another
country, which is, in a sense, what this play is really about. It's about a young child
who comes to a different country, doesn't speak the language, and tries to be someone
else for a major part of her life. SPENCER MICHELS: Tony Taccone, Berkeley Rep's artistic
director, wrote "Life Without Makeup," after talking with Moreno for several years about
her early life. TONY TACCONE, Berkeley Repertory Theatre: She knows she wants to be a star,
and she knows that the biggest stars are Betty Grable and Lana Turner and Elizabeth Taylor.
And so she wants to be them. Like, she literally wants to be them. She doesn't like her own
skin. She doesn't like her own skin color. SPENCER MICHELS: But, Taccone says, she changed.
She grew assertive as her career progressed and became comfortable with herself. And that's
what attracted him to her story, along with her artistry. TONY TACCONE: She's a spitfire.
She's -- she will take no prisoners. She will not be held back. SPENCER MICHELS: Moreno
began dancing as a child. RITA MORENO: I would perform at all kinds of bar mitzvahs and Jewish
weddings and Catholic weddings as well. I was an equal opportunity little Carmen Miranda.
SPENCER MICHELS: She used her talent to help support her mother, who, she says, wasn't
the ideal parent. RITA MORENO: She did the best she could. She was very self-involved
and self-absorbed. She was a narcissistic young woman. And... SPENCER MICHELS: She was
married five times. RITA MORENO: Well, married five times doesn't mean you're narcissistic.
It simply means that you don't go to bed with somebody unless you marry them. She was a
lady from the islands. SPENCER MICHELS: Moreno was discovered, and landed at MGM, where she
was assigned one ethnic role after another. She played Tuptim, an unhappy wife of the
king of Siam in "The King and I." RITA MORENO: When I went into movies, I did nothing but
speak with an accent. It used to just drive me crazy. They were, of course, all the same
accent, because I don't know how an American Indian girl speaks. I played lots of those.
And then I played a lot of little senorita Lolita, conchita Lolita kind of spitfire roles,
everything but an American girl. I was the utilitarian ethnic. SPENCER MICHELS: Were
you amused by this or annoyed by it? RITA MORENO: Hell, no. Oh, God, no. I hated it.
SPENCER MICHELS: What she didn't hate was the glamour of Hollywood. In "Life Without
Makeup," she is open about her relationships, some of which ended badly. You had an affair
with Marlon Brando, obviously. RITA MORENO: Well, it was more than an affair. We had a
relationship for at least five, six years. SPENCER MICHELS: And what was that like in
terms of -- I mean, Marlon Brando... RITA MORENO: What was it like? It was fabulous,
hilarious, tumultuous beyond belief. SPENCER MICHELS: And, Taccone says, her career was
as rocky as her romances. TONY TACCONE: Yes, she was fired twice from MGM and Fox. Yes,
I mean, she -- the roller coaster of her life is compelling. SPENCER MICHELS: It wasn't
until fairly recently that she escaped the purely ethnic roles, working at Berkeley Rep
in a sold-out run of Tennessee Williams' "Glass Menagerie," and in "Master Class," her Puerto
Rican roots off center stage for once. For Taccone, Moreno's journey from the barrios
to where she is now is historic. TONY TACCONE: There are very few people throughout history
who you can identify as crossover artists. And I think that there are very few people
who know in the course of their lifetime that they are actually being swept up by history,
and that they are, in fact, making history. And I think Rita's one of those. SPENCER MICHELS:
Still, "West Side Story" remains the film people remember her for, especially her joyous,
very funny rendition of "America." (SINGING) SPENCER MICHELS: But the tragedy of "West
Side Story," the Puerto Rican and white gangs fatally feuding in New York, struck a personal
chord with Moreno as well. RITA MORENO: I understood this girl Anita very, very well.
I certainly understood racial prejudice, because I ran into a lot of it. I got called some
really mean names in my life as a child, just for being this cute little Puerto Rican girl.
SPENCER MICHELS: Today, Moreno plays a Jewish mother in "Happily Divorced," a sitcom that
runs on TV Land cable, and she had a recurring role on the PBS children's series "The Electric
Company." RITA MORENO: Hey, you guys! SPENCER MICHELS: Now about to start her ninth decade,
Moreno has come a long ways as an actress and as a person. While looking back, she's
still looking ahead, RITA MORENO: Here I am doing this play, trying desperately to memorize
32 pages of single-spaced type, with nobody on stage to help me. That terrifies me. Being
80? No. urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags State urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags
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