Moreno struggled on road to blazing a trail
Actor details peaks and valleys of her career in new film
At 89, Rita Moreno has a lot of stories to tell. She hasn’t slowed down long enough not to. And while she’s reflected on many of them before, recounting much of the significant ones in her 2013 autobiography, “Rita Moreno: A Memoir,” she wasn’t quite prepared the first time she saw a cut of the documentary about her life.
“I literally went: ‘Wow, what a life I’ve had,’ ” she recalled. “It kind of surprised me in a way. You live your life thinking it’s just your life. And then somebody comes along and says, ‘Oh, no, it’s so much more than that. And it represents so much more than that.’ ”
“Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It,” which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival, explores the peaks and valleys of her personal life and decadeslong career that broke barriers even while being stifled by them.
Directed by Mariem Pérez Riera, the 90-minute film traces Moreno’s extraordinarily full life: her humble upbringing in Puerto Rico, the splitting up of her family — and the ensuing culture shock — when she moved to New York City with her mother as a young child, her struggles navigating Hollywood’s sexism and racism to forge a lasting career, and the turmoils of her most significant relationships, namely a tumultuous eight-year love affair with actor Marlon Brando that drove Moreno to attempt suicide, as well as her nearly five-decade marriage to cardiologist Lenny Gordon, who died in 2010.
What emerges is a portrait of resilience and of a woman, eventually and resoundingly, finding her voice.
“I really wanted to have Rita be that inspiration to women that have gone through the same fights that she has been going through throughout her life,” says Pérez Riera.
Moreno allowed the director to follow her over seven months at various locations, including her home in Berkeley and on the set of the “One Day at a Time” reboot, in which she portrays matriarch Lydia Alvarez.
The act of reflecting on her life for this legacy project, she says, wasn’t a difficult process, which she attributes to the years in therapy she’s already spent assessing different areas of her life story.
“The hardest thing I ever did was learn to love myself,” she says. “And it’s so important to look back and reflect because you can still learn something. More often than not, the kind of things I realized when I look back is, ‘Oh, that’s why that happened’ or ‘That’s why I did that.’ There’s power in that. It keeps you moving forward.”
And if anyone has moved forward, it’s Moreno.
She’s in the elite club of EGOT winners (people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony). She’s received the Peabody Career Achievement Award and the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the Kennedy Center Honor for her lifetime contributions to American culture. And she has been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Arts.
There’s still more ahead. Perhaps still best known for her turn as Anita in 1961’s “West Side Story,” the veteran actor will appear in Steven Spielberg’s remake of the classic musical — slated for release later this year — in a different role.
But Moreno’s road to blazing a trail for Latino actors who came after her wasn’t without its struggles. The documentary digs into the decades of typecasting Moreno endured early in her film career, often playing Latina “spitfires” or cast as the resident “native girl” with an accent.
“When I went to Hollywood, I really learned where I stood in the world, and it was so sad and frustrating,” she says. “There is something so awful about, if you were a performer, asking your agent to submit you for something and the people won’t even see you because they think you’re too Spanish or something. It’s so frustrating and you want to run and knock their door down and say: ‘Look, let me read this scene for you. I’m good. I’m really good. Let me. Watch me. Listen to me.’ And you can’t do that. It was also so embarrassing to me that my agents kept getting turned down. I remember thinking, ‘Well, they’re probably not crazy about me as a client because I don’t work much.’ ”
Even after winning the Academy Award for “West Side Story” — and earning the distinction as the first Latina to win an Oscar — Moreno’s career didn’t experience a boost.
She didn’t have any significant acting credits for nearly a decade, partly because she refused to play roles she felt perpetuated stereotypes. While some progress has been made in the years since then, Latinos remain greatly underrepresented in the entertainment industry.
“I don’t think our community has moved a whole lot in the eyes of Hollywood, and we’re all talking about that constantly,” Moreno says. “We have a long way to go. I don’t think that, in my lifetime, I’m going to see that change — I really don’t. I mean ... I’m 89.”
Some of the more harrowing parts of the film are when Moreno recounts the sexual harassment she often faced as an ingénue in Hollywood. One of the most shocking stories she describes is being raped by her agent.
“I never expected to talk about that,” she says. “It’s not exactly something like, ‘Oh, here’s one of the things I want the world to know.’ I was very hesitant because, believe it or not, though I am a rather direct person, there are certain things that are taboo simply because of the age in which I lived.”
Moreno says she’s grateful to have lived to bear witness to the collective power of the #MeToo movement and the conversations it has provoked.
“I think the #MeToo movement has played an enormous part in almost every woman’s life,” she says. “I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime. Women are getting stronger; there is a lot of bravery taking place. Women really think so differently now than they did when I was a girl. Oh, my God, I’m 89 and think of all the stuff I’ve seen and heard and experienced. I hope things only get better. It’s not just important for women; it’s important for men too. Men still have a great deal to learn, and there’s nobody like a determined women to show them and teach them.”
In the meantime, this determined woman has another lesson in mind for anyone who watches the story of her life. And it’s this: “It pays to dream and it pays to pay attention to your dreams. And there is an absolute payoff to hanging on and being stubborn and just falling down and getting up.”
OPENING
Storyland: A Trip Through Childhood Favorites: Transforms seven award-winning picture books (“The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” “The Snowy Day,”“Where’s Spot?,” “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” and “Tuesday”) into three-dimensional play and bi-lingual (English and Spanish) learning environments that highlight the six pre-reading skills defined by the Public Library Association and Association for Library Service to Children. Opens Feb. 13. Through May 23. Reading Public Museum, 500 Musuem Road, Reading. 610-371-5850, readingpublicmuseum.org.
ONGOING
ARTHAUS GALLERY, 645 Hamilton St., Allentown. 610-841-4866. Blackboard Veve Painting: Local artist Femi J. Johnson show features a series of paintings, some on old blackboards, done during Covid 2020. Artist reception, 1-6 p.m. Feb. 18. Through March 20.
ALLENTOWN ART MUSEUM, 31 N. Fifth St., Allentown. 610-432-4333. New Century, New Woman: Explores American women’s new personal and political freedoms at the turn of the twentieth century through the lens of fashion. Through April 18.
Prints and Protest, 1960-1970: Explores artists diverse responses to causes such as the Civil Rights and antiwar movements. Through April 25.
Rembrandt Revealed: Through a close focus on “Portrait of a Young Woman” the exhibition offers a deep dive into the conservation process, with an appealing and accessible step-by-step understanding of decisions and discoveries and also explores the complexities and uncertainties of the attribution process and invites the public to participate in that conversation. Through May 2. allentownartmuseum.org.
BANANA FACTORY, BANKO GALLERY, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem. 610-332-1300.
The 5x5 Show: Five artists in five media. Richard Begbie (photography); James A. DePietro (painting); Barbara Kozero (mosaic, sculpture); Jacqueline Meyerson (pastels); and Pat Delluva (drawing, printmaking). Through March 21.
EAST STROUDSBURG UNIVERSITY, MADELON POWERS GALLERY, 200 Prospect St., East Stroudsburg. null. The Sally Project: Online exhibition features local and national artists, writers, performers, and historians intrigued by women like Sarah “Sally” Hemings, the mixed-race slave woman who had six children with Thomas Jefferson, whose lives have been erased or marginalized. Through May 31. esu.edu.
LAURA’S CUSTOM FRAMING AND FINE ART, 1328 Chestnut St., Emmaus. 610-928-8622. Art Exhibit: Paintings by Micaela Cardinale. Through Feb. 28.
LEHIGH VALLEY CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL FOR THE ARTS, 321 E. Third St., Bethlehem. 610-868-2971. Faculty Art Exhibit: View virtually works by various school faculty and alumni. Through March 31. charterarts.org.
LOWER MACUNGIE LIBRARY, 3450 Brookside Road, Macungie. 610-966-6864. Paintings: Catherine Rhoades. Through Feb. 28.
MICHENER ART MUSEUM,
138 S. Pine St., Doylestown. 215-340-9800. Fern Coppedge:
New Discoveries: Highlights Michener’s recent acquisition of four winter landscapes by the Pennsylvania Impressionist. Reserved timed tickets. Through April 18.
Syd Carpenter: Portraits of Our Places: Exhibition of 11 large-scale pieces highlights Carpenter’s connection between sculpture and the art of gardening. Through Feb. 28.
Through the Lens: Modern Photography in the Delaware Valley: Explores nearly 70 years of artistic experimentations with photographic processes and subject matter by artists in the Delaware Valley region. Through Aug. 15. michenerartmuseum.org.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF INDUSTRIAL HISTORY, 602 E. Second St., Bethlehem. 610-694-6644. Machines of Interest: Two dozen original prints from New York-based photographer Stephen Mallon’s collection spanning life on the rails to deconstruction in the recycling yard to tracing the elements of human-made machines. Through March 7. nmih.org.
NEW ARTS PROGRAM, 173 W. Main St., Kutztown. 610-6836440. Voices & Visions: Artists of Haiti: Expansive exhibition and sale of original paintings curated by artist/poet Patricia Goodrich commemorating the 11th anniversary of the January 12, 2010, earthquake that devastated much of Haiti. Through April 17. newartsprogram.org.
NEW HOPE ARTS CENTER, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope. 215862-9606. Illusions of Light:
John Spears work has evolved using the silk screen process as a basis to embody a multiplicity of paint color palettes. In person and online exhibit. Through March 21. newhopearts.org.
READING PUBLIC MUSEUM, 500 Museum Road, Reading. 610-371-5850. Billie Jean King: Champion. Activist. Legend.:
75 photographs chronicle King’s life, including her journey toward achieving 39 Grand Slam titles and the world No. 1 ranking in women’s tennis. Through May 23. Courting Style: Women’s Tennis Fashion: Explores the intersection of tennis and fashion drawn from the collections at the Museum of International Tennis Hall of Fame. Through May 25.
STUDIO B FINE ART GALLERY, 39A E. Philadelphia Ave., Boyertown. 484-332-2757. New Day/New World: Juried fine art exhibit in all media. Through March 21. studiobbb.org.
THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia. 215-299-1000. Permian Monsters: Life Before the Dinosaurs: Step back in time 290 million years to when bizarrelooking creatures dominated life on land and sea, and dinosaurs had not yet evolved. Through May 2.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year: 100 awarded images from the 2019 entries. Through March 14. ansp.org.
THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, 222 N. 20th St., Philadelphia. 215448-1200. Crayola IDEAworks: The Creativity Exhibition: Stateof-the-art digital interactives and exhibits that provide a personalized adventure guided by RFID wristbands. Through July 18. fi.edu.
ZOELLNER ARTS CENTER, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. 610758-3615. Doing Democracy: Photography from the George Stephanopoulos Collection: Explores the unfolding process of American democracy through an array of photographs that shine a light on significant events of the 20th century and the present, featuring world leaders, the media, politicians, civil rights movements, and everyday Americans. Viewing appointment required. Through May 21. luag.lehigh.edu.
GALLERY 840, 840 Hamilton St. Suite 101, Allentown. 484866-2972. Light and Hope:
Abraham Darlington, Mandy Martin, Barbara Tracy and Wendy Stoudt bring their own unique style to create art that is uplifting, bright and hopeful. Register for private showing or view online. Through April 24. gallery840.net.