The irrepressible Rita Moreno, famous for her role in the original West Side Story for which she won an Oscar is featured as the cover girl for the Town And Country new issue. All legs and glamour, the 90-year-old says she still has carer goals:
“I still don’t have what I want. People aren’t exactly knocking my door down, you know,” she stated. “This West Side Story connection is wonderful, but that’s just one job. That’s not ongoing work. That’s not somebody saying, ‘There’s this part in the script that I think would be just wonderful for you. Would you consider it?’ It’s not happening.”
On being called a legend:
“Let me just say, first of all, that I’ve never in my life thought of myself and the word legend in the same breath.” she stated in the interview. “I guess I am one.”
On playing Valentina in Speilberg’s new ‘Westside Story:’
‘I thought, Okay, be nice, Rita. You be polite. I said: “I don’t want to tell you how to make your movies, but I just don’t do cameos.”‘ – only for Steven Spielberg to allay her concerns and let her know: ‘Tony wrote this for you.’ (He’s referring to Tony Kushner.)
The song Somewhere, which in the show and the original movie is a love duet between the two leads, was given to Valentina in the new version.
On her career:
“When I started out, I wanted to be an actress in the movies. I wanted to be a star. That’s all I wanted out of life from the time I was five,” she went on. “Legacy is not something I associate with myself, and I never related to it. I don’t relate to it now. I don’t know—that’s a word I always associate with white people. It’s like a $50 word.”