West Side Story 1961: Why Rita Moreno Almost Quit Her Oscar-Winning Role As Anita
Rita Moreno has had quite an illustrious career, and thanks to her casting in "Fast X" as Abuelita, she is now known to a whole new audience. The Puerto Rican actress is recognized as the first Latina to win an Oscar for her performance as Anita in 1961's "West Side Story," and in 1977 she became the first Latina actress to become an EGOT winner by virtue of her having an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. But in an interview with Good Morning America, Moreno explained why she almost quit the Oscar-winning role.
"My character Anita is a person who loves America and wants nothing to do with Puerto Rico, and the verse of the song originally was really quite disparaging to Puerto Rico, and I completely forgot that," Moreno said. "And then I got the part after working very hard to get it, screen tests all over the place, and I realized, 'Oh my god, this verse to America — I don't think I can do this I don't think I can do this to my people.'"
Luckily for Moreno and for audiences, Stephen Sondheim already changed the lyric in question, and she happily took on the role.
Stephen Sondheim changed the lyrics for the film
Rita Moreno is a legend, and for many aspiring actors, she's a story of what can happen if you don't give up on your dreams and keep fighting for what you want. She came from Puerto Rico to the U.S. as a child, and by her teenage years she had made her debut as Angelina in the Broadway play "Skydrift." After contracts with MGM and 20th Century Studios, she got the part of Anita in "West Side Story" 16 years after making her Broadway debut. But when she read the lyrics to "America" the day before rehearsals were due to begin, she almost backed out.
"I looked at the score and there it is, 'Puerto Rico, you ugly island. Island of tropic diseases,'" Moreno said in ABC's "Something's Coming: West Side Story." "And it felt awful. It felt horrible. And I thought, 'I can't do this. I can't do this to my people.' I got this close to not doing it." But a few days later she got a new script and was relieved when she saw the lyrics to the song had been changed to 'Puerto Rico, my heart's devotion, let it sink back in the ocean.' "And I was saved," she said.
Moreno actually wasn't the first to object to the lyrics. In 1957, before the show had been released on Broadway, New York Times medical columnist Dr. Howard A. Rusk also complained, calling the line "a blow below the belt."