At 80, Rita Moreno Still Tells It Like It Is

“I have no objection to playing an Hispanic; I have every objection to playing a stereotype.” That’s Rita Moreno, in a wonderful video interview here. Watching snippets of “West Side Story” at a bar the other night, I was struck yet again of how Moreno is much the best thing — not to mention the most authentic thing — in the movie. She’s one of the very few performers to have won competitive awards in the Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy sweepstakes. And I do mean very few: people like Whoopi Goldberg and Liza Minnelli have all four statuettes, but not in competitive performing categories.

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