Oscar Rewind: When Rita Moreno Made History and Thanked Nobody

It was the night that cemented her place in history, and Rita Moreno nearly skipped it.

In February 1962, Moreno, then 30, was in the Philippines to shoot “Cry of Battle” – a black-and-white World War II film in which she played the English-speaking leader of a band of Filipino fighters. So when she found out she’d been nominated for her first Oscar — for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Anita in “West Side Story” — she took a moment to celebrate. And then she became pragmatic.

As the star of “Cry of Battle,” she would still be needed on set – 7,300 miles from the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where that year’s Academy Awards would take place in April.

“I was absolutely certain that Judy Garland was going to win for ‘Judgment at Nuremberg,'” Moreno, now 90 and still vivacious and irreverent, said in a recent phone conversation from Carmel-by-the-Sea, in California, where she was traveling with her daughter.

But then she won a Golden Globe — and changed her mind. She bought a plane ticket.

“I flew to California thinking, ‘Hey, if there’s a chance I’ll win, I gotta be there,'” said Moreno, who faced off against Garland, Fay Bainter (“Time for children”), Lotte Lenya (“The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone”) and Una Merkel (“Summer and Smoke”).

It didn’t hurt that the film for which she was nominated – ‘West Side Story,’ Robert Wise’s adaptation of the Broadway musical – was a success both at the box office and among critics, or racked up 11 nominations, including Best Picture. New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther called it “a masterpiece of cinema.”

But before the ceremony, Moreno was so pessimistic about her chances that she practiced her “loser face” and made speeches about how “it was a lousy movie” and that she “didn’t want it.” not anyway”. But his heart was not in it. She wanted to win – really.

So on April 9, 1962, when Rock Hudson opened the envelope, paused, then read her name — making Moreno, who is Puerto Rican, the first Latina actress to win an Oscar — her eyes the size of a saucer and its open mouth said it all. .

“I didn’t expect to win,” Moreno said, then added with a laugh, “Nobody who watched it can dispute that.”

But as she made her way to the stage in her Pitoy Moreno dress, complete with a voluminous black and gold skirt and a black sleeveless top, her mouth hanging open with every step, she had only one thing on her mind. (Well, two: the first, she said, was “Don’t run; it’s not worthy.”)

“I remember thinking very clearly, ‘Don’t thank anybody,'” she said. “They didn’t give you the role as a favor. They had to give it to you because you did the best screen test.

She gave one of the shortest acceptance speeches in Oscars history: “I can’t believe it! Good God! I leave you with that. It only lasted seven seconds.

“I had nothing more to say once I decided I wasn’t going to say thank you,” she said. “And ever since, I’ve been trying to catch up with long acceptance speeches.”

But backstage, her night was just getting started: After accepting the award from Hudson, she bumped into Joan Crawford backstage, who was there to present the Best Actor award and, as Moreno said, ” drunk as a vodka skunk”.

“She hugged me so tight that she completely covered my face,” Moreno said. “She was built as a linebacker. And she hugs me and the photographer says, “Miss Crawford, I can’t see your face.” Could you please uncover your face?

Backstage, Moreno missed the night’s other most memorable drama: a New York cabbie, upset that Bob Hope wasn’t nominated for his role as a radio host on “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” snuck up, took the stage, and announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m the world’s greatest doorbreaker and I just came here to present Bob Hope with his 1938 trophy.”

He quickly produced a homemade statuette.

“Really?” Moreno said when told about the episode. “I don’t remember at all! I had to win the Oscar just before and be in the press room. It’s the only way I won’t remember. It’s unforgettable.

Moreno didn’t linger too long after her big win, as she had a 15-hour flight to Manila the next day. Her early departure also meant that she missed all the phone calls, flowers and telegrams coming to her in the United States. But a friend later told him that in El Barrio in New York – Latinos stuck their heads out the window as Hudson announced Moreno’s name – and screamed.

“I was robbed of all that wonder because I had to go back and do this [expletive] war movie in Manila,” she said.

Her Oscar win, she said, didn’t open doors for her — it did.

“I remember thinking after the movie came out and after the Oscars, ‘Wow, my career is done,'” said Moreno, who became one of 16 to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and a Tony. “But I became this dark-skinned girl, which at the time was really a typing thing that almost ended my career.” (His skin was notoriously darkened for the role, despite his objections.)

In the years leading up to “West Side Story,” she had honed what she called the “universal accent,” specializing in “island girl” roles, spending her days in low-cut blouses and hoop earrings, prancing barefoot amid palm trees and cane backdrops in studio photographs.

“I would talk like that all the time,” she said, demonstrating, “Why don’t you love me anymore? Why do you like the white girl? Why are you taking gold from my people?

After the Oscars, she pestered her agent to submit her name for better roles, or to ask producers and directors if they could at least let her read a scene — to no avail. A producer who refused to meet her, she said, was candid.

“My agent said, ‘You’re Anita – he just didn’t want to see you,'” she said. “Because it wasn’t a part that was Latina; it was a party that had no nationality. It really broke my heart.

She didn’t land meaningful film roles, she said, until years later.

“After ‘West Side Story,’ I couldn’t find a job,” she said. “All the Latina roles in movies were so superficial. And I said, ‘I won’t do that stuff with the accents anymore.’

But in the decades since, she’s rebuilt her career on her own terms, racking up a variety of comedy, television and theater credits, including a new character, Valentina, in the remake of “West Side Story. ” by Steven Spielberg, who was nominated for seven Oscars this year.

She said she was impressed that Tony Kushner, a screenwriter on the film, “turned into a pretzel trying to get it right”.

That included casting an Afro-Latin actress — Ariana DeBose, who is up against Moreno for Best Supporting Actress at the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday — as Anita, the role Moreno originally played.

“I ran into her during rehearsals and thought, ‘Yay, Steven, you did great, mate,'” Moreno said.

DeBose, who said in an interview last month that Moreno has always been “incredibly supportive,” also earned an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress this year. If she were to win, she and Moreno would be the third pair of actors to win for playing the same role in different films — and the first women and performers of color to do so.

“I’m beyond thrilled that Ariana was nominated,” Moreno said. “And when she wins, I’m going to burst into tears on behalf of every Hispanic who ever lived.”