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LOS ANGELES, March 15 (UPI) -- After presenting at the Oscars on Sunday, Rita Moreno transitioned to promoting her new movie, The Prank, in theaters Friday. The 92-year-old actor shared some memorable Oscar moments in an interview this week before discussing her latest film.
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An Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actress for 1961's West Side Story, Moreno joined Jamie Lee Curtis, Mary Steenburgen, Lupita Nyong'o and Regina King to introduce this year's nominees.
What Oscar viewers didn't see was Moreno meeting singer Lenny Kravitz at the Vanity Fair afterparty. Kravitz wrote the song "Road to Freedom" for the film Rustin, which earned Colman Domingo a nomination for Best Actor.
"He got on the floor on his knees," Moreno said. "Who would ever think that Lenny Kravitz would feel that way about someone like me?"
Though Moreno has been on stage and screen since the '50s, she said she still introduces herself to people because she does not want to assume they recognize her. Kravitz proved to be a fan.
"He just carried on and carried on to the point of I can't believe this guy's on his knees," Moreno said.
She said she was pleased with the Oscars' production of nominees by having former winners introduce them. Moreno said it was also significant that she got to introduce Latina nominee America Ferrera.
"It had such elegance," Moreno said. "It was the best thing they've done in years and years."
The Prank stars Moreno as Mrs. Wheeler, a high school teacher all the students dread. When she fails Ben (Connor Kalopsis) and Mei (Ramona Young), the kids play a prank to get their revenge.
Starting the prank
Ben and Mei start a rumor that Wheeler actually is a murderer. The prank spirals out of control when people outside their school start believing it, too.
Moreno said watching her play the mean teacher made her laugh just with her physicality.
"The first time I saw myself on screen I went, 'Ha,'" Moreno said. "I was so shocked at how unpleasant I looked."
Wheeler appears to show some vulnerability when the students are not around. When Principal Henderson (Keith David) calls Wheeler into his office, she begs to keep her job, but Moreno suspected that was all an act.
"I don't even know that she's vulnerable," Moreno said. "She's so wicked and evil."
Henderson's beef with Wheeler goes back long before the prank. He may have been looking for an excuse to put her in her place.
"She always parks her car in his space," Moreno said. "She deliberately does that because she comes early before he arrives."
Since Wheeler is the target of the prank, the film's poster puts her front and center. Even after seven decades in the business, Moreno said she is still excited to be on a movie poster.
"We live in the opportunity to act in a movie," Moreno said. "That's my joy. I love it."
Standing up for extras
The business was not always a joy for Moreno. In her 2021 documentary, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It, Moreno speaks about her mistreatment she experienced.
Now that she is established, Moreno said she steps in when she sees others mistreated on sets. In a recent production she declined to name, she said she defended the film's background extras.
It was a scene at a fancy event in which female extras were wearing high heels. Moreno noticed a group of extras in a part of the scene where their feet would not be seen.
"The women were not allowed to take their shoes off," Moreno said. "I went over to them and I said, 'Take your shoes off. [Expletive] them. Screw them.'"
Moreno also reprimanded the crew member who forbade them from going barefoot.
"I'm very aware of how people get mistreated on sets, particularly people who don't have lines to speak," Moreno said. "They're just extras. They're people."
When working with young casts like in The Prank, or her recent TV show, One Day at a Time, Moreno said she also warns young actors about mistreatment they might face.
"I give them warnings about how people can be so mean to young players," Moreno said. "I tell them what's a good way to behave."
Overcoming trauma
Though she has persevered in the industry, Moreno said she still faces lingering self-doubts. But she said she has simply gotten better at silencing those thoughts.
"There still exists what I call a little Rosita who comes to my shoulder when things aren't going well and she says, 'Ha ha, told ya','" Moreno said. "I've learned to say to that little Rosita, 'Go to your room.'"
In the documentary, Moreno expressed regrets for remaining married to Lenny Gordon for 46 years, until his death in 2010. She said her daughter, Fernanda Gordon, learned that for the first time when she saw Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It.
"She knew when something wasn't right, but we didn't share that with her, of course," Moreno said. "He was a fabulous father. He was not the best husband only because he was so controlling."
Fernanda also learned of incidents that happened to her mother before she was born. In addition to mistreatment on set, Moreno alleges in the documentary that her agent raped her when she was a teenager.
"She was shocked, as most people are when they see it, because there are things that I never told her," Moreno said. "She was shocked and she understood more what makes me the way I am."
