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Quite a few of them first saw her on the kids’ TV program The Electric Company, where she found something close to artistic freedom in a format that allowed her to play all sorts of roles. The whole affair did one good thing for her, though, as his passion for social causes inspired her to speak out similarly for racial justice and abortion access.Īs you’d expect, a murderer’s row of Latin celebrities (Lin-Manuel Miranda, Eva Longoria, Gloria Estefan, Gina Rodriguez, and even Supreme Court justice Sonia Sotomayor) lines up to say how she inspired them. Later, she would try to kill herself over him. Instead, he arranged for an illegal abortion that almost killed her. She had a years-long abusive relationship with Marlon Brando, in which she became pregnant by him in an attempt to make him marry her. Moreno talks of being raped by her agent and then letting him continue to work as her agent. Perversely, Anita in West Side Story was the first role where she played a Puerto Rican. It wasn’t just that these parts erased her ethnicity, but rather that they were all essentially the same, the colored girl who is the white man’s side piece before he goes off to marry the demure, respectable white woman.
Rita moreno documentary skin#
The documentary shows us her early roles, when her skin was darkened with “makeup the color of mud” in her words so that she could play Polynesians, Asians, and Native Americans. Unvarnished truth is what this film is about, and it goes beyond seeing the star without her makeup and wig.
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Now Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It looks back on her remarkable achievements. Many people would become discouraged under those circumstances, but she kept plugging away. It didn’t, because the industry had no idea what to do with a Latina actress in the early 1960s, even one who was manifestly talented at many things, even one who could pass for white (which she did in her small role in Singin’ in the Rain), even one who was young, attractive, and sexy. Rita Moreno won an Oscar in 1962, and by all rights that should have led to mainline Hollywood stardom.
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This week, the main new things at the multiplex are two documentaries about two very different musical careers and the ups and downs they’ve had over the decades.