tavis: good evening. from los angeles, i am tavis ritay.a conversation with moreno. she has written about her remarkable life in a new memoir. she went on to hollywood stardom, earning an oscar, grammy, a tony, and two enemies. she's the only latina to pull off that remarkable accomplishment. this is our 10th anniversary and we are approaching our 2000 episode. joining me now is sheila who does make up for many and -- me and many of the guests you see on this program. >> it is a pleasure to be with you every day.

the conversations that you have are truly amazing. it is such a blessing. i appreciate that. >> we are glad you have joined us. >> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

tavis: rita moreno was born in puerto rico and made her broadway debut at the age of 13. she went on to hollywood. along the way, she has picked up , aoscar, a tony, two emmys grammy and was awarded the national medal of honor. she is the first and only latina to do all of that. she has written a frank and fascinating memoir about her remarkable life. i cannot resist opening up this conversation without showing a

clip of you in "west side story ." >> ♪ always the hurricanes blowing always the population growing and the money owing and the sunlight streaming i like the islands ♪ when you see these clips these years later, do you think what? >> it takes me back to a time when i finally got a chance to

do what i was able to do for years before that. i got to play a real hispanic person. [laughter] , but i got tow do nothing but that. finally, along came this wonderful role. -- i want tooman say balls, but i will say ovaries. it was nothing but joy. i would love to do it again. it is a great film. obviously, the dialogue is very dated, but it is a treasure. tavis: you wanted this and you

got it. what did you have to go through to get the part? >> i had to audition. how difficult or easy was it to land the part? >> it was not easy because i had to audition for all of the parts that were required of me. singing audition, and acting audition, and the thing that scared me the most was dancing. i have not danced for at least 10 years. it is like asking someone to play five sets of tennis the day. you cannot do it. they loved found out me--i ran when i found out they loved me for the part, but could she pull off the dancing? i was a spanish dancer.

it was jazz. i killed myself, i worked so hard at the dance studio. i registered for every class. i worked from 9:00 in the morning until 9:00 or 10:00 at night. trying to get my groove back. it was very frightening. if i lose this knowing that they want me, but i lose it because i do not get the dancing, i am going to want to die. i did the audition with my heart in my throat. a friend of mine taught me some steps. most people do not know that dancing auditions, you learn the steps right now. and then you try to do it slowly. , ok, do it upsay

to speed. and i had to do the steps my friend taught me. jerome robbins was very anxious about it, he was the choreographer. he was dying to know how i did. she needs some work. is she has style and she funny. she learned so fast. i knew those steps. i knew those steps. tavis: you get this part and it works out and you go on to win an academy award. books and a golden globe. -- >> and a golden globe. tavis: you know the story.

have had countless conversations in my career on tv what an academy award is worth for a person of color. -- if you and i had hours i would give you my list. it is a very short list. of persons of color who i believe have won academy awards and continue to elevate their game after they won. andywood gave them better additional opportunities to continue perfecting their craft. as a -- as opposed to winning an academy award and you are not heard of for years. after you won your academy award, how long before you did

your next film? >> are you ready? seven years. seven years. film for seven a years. once i had my goal demand -- gold man, no more of those stereotypical -- i will not do any movies like that. boy, i showed them. i cut off my nose to spite my face. i was determined. i got the highest accolade in my profession and i will not denigrated or devalue it by going back to those horrible movies. that is all i was offered. i was offered some things, not much, by the way, what i did not do a film for seven whole years. tavis: talk to me about how you

emotionally navigated that period and how you ,rofessionally navated it that drought and possibly of opportunity. >> emotionally, it was very hard for me. i could not believe i was not getting any offers. , a lot of people felt i was very talented because they peopleor me, including in a position to employ me, but did not. i played the hispanic character and they could not think anywhere beyond that box. i navigated it a whole lot better. i would do theater, it tv, what ever i can to embrace what i love best. points in terms of

enriching my talent. i had a long way to go and i thought i was good in "west side story." i could have done this, i could have done that. i did not get a second chance. tavis: what did you think then that you had to work on -- what did you see immediately that you had to work on to continue to perfect your gift customer >> work on myd to speaking voice. tavis: it works for me. >> it did not for me. i felt i needed more experience. unfortunately, the only experience i could get was more movies. i was not getting more movies, so i did the next best thing.

in theater, the one place where , differentolor nationalities had a better chance of doing roles. .ven now, the door is ajar it is not wide open. if you try to push on it, you get pushed pretty hard. we are not talking about somebody like jennifer lopez. she defies belief and understanding. it is still very difficult. i still get offered parts of with anhers who speak accent. which is fine, but they are written so badly. i am 81. tavis: nobody would believe it.

81, i am not buying it. state my age because it keeps me honest. lying is a bad idea. tavis: one of the things i loved about this book was the honesty, the authenticity, the transparency, which so often people do not want to put -- i never understood people in this town who write a book and do not want to tell the truth. >> i had to talk to myself about that. if you are really going to do that, and it is about your life, it you have to write about your life. i put myself on the carpet about certain things. that is part of living. a quick thought on the privacy -- the progress that has

or has not been made in regards to latinos. you were one of the first ones to the door. what is your sense of progress or progress has not been made? >> it is better, i cannot jump up and down with joy. i get asked very often by my people because i have a big black audience. i am proud to say. how come you are the only one who ever got an oscar? the answer is not that difficult. you should not be nominated for an oscar unless you have turned in a performance that is special. at a time wheng

this very unusual movie was being made. i thought it would not make a cent. 50 years later. i think we have got to stop at some point writing latino roles or black roles. were is only one place -- victimize ourselves. i have talked to a lot of young people. or it is notdn't my fault because they do not like my people. i am very much like bill cosby. .hat is true, so what

what are you going to do about it? are you going to sit here and whine? you are going to end up washing dishes. my middle name is perseverance. i have always believed that i have talent, even when i felt ,ike an inferior sort of person living my life feeling like i was not worthy. even then, i knew i had something special. maybe that is what it takes. maybe people need to have that type of particular core driving them. a quick programming note. this week,egue -- wednesday, thursday, and friday, for three consecutive

nights, we will broadcast highlights of a brilliant conversation i convened at called state last week latino nation beyond the numbers. a stage full of the best and brightest thought leaders, opinion leaders in the latino community, 16 of them. the dreams and aspirations of the future. it was a conversation that was not just about immigration. we talked about all of the things that mattered. threeill broadcast for nights on this program starting wednesday night of this week. >> i am going to watch. yous: i raise that because , engaged, youve

are at the march on washington. we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of that in august of this year. how did you get so active? i had a wonderful roommate who was very political. i met her in group therapy. yay for neurosis. she was very political. i was a girl who always try to meet with people who knew more than i did. i am not very educated. that she got me very involved and i began to understand that and beingervice

involved in something that is greater than you is what makes a person complete and whole. first thing i ever did in terms of activism was for an anti-atom bomb rally. 100 years ago. it.lt wonderful after i helped her raise funds and i was told the people taking movies and pictures of me were not fans. i got scared, but i thought, i will not let that stop me. it is natural that it escalated into something more sophisticated and something more political. first of all, let me state about the martin luther king , we were 10 feet away from him.

we were sitting at the monument. yes, there we were, the sweltering heat. i have never felt such heat. i think my scalp burned. i sell every drop of perspiration on that man's face and i was mesmerized. and then when he went off the , i thought i dream would have a heart attack. every once in a while and the picture would go up, i would look around me to the back. we were facing dr. king and the many of them wearing

the uniform of that particular time. what an experience. , what ae involved lovely man he was. tavis: i will take them one at a time. and you became romantically involved. prior to that, you had been involved with marlon brando, who at that moment, you were not speaking to. >> we had a very long tempestuous kind of relationship. almost eight years. ,e was a big-time philanderer but it takes two to tango. i became very,

subservient. that was the kind of man i always chose. his celebrity was thrilling. be powerful by association. the time i am with him at dinner or in the theater. a very serious attempt at suicide on my part. i could not bear the humiliation and i kept putting myself through. i haveople said to me, to correct them and say, it could not have happened without me. for myself, i was a rather helpless creature, but it could not have happened without me.

it was exciting. onething i love the most is time, when i got really angry at him, i got even in the most wonderful way. you know what is coming. should i go on? what happened was i read in a columnist colin that elvis presley had spotted me and wanted to meet me. colonelter i read that, parker calls me. my client elvis presley would like very much to meet you. would you like to meet him? ? thought, what the heck >>

yes, i would. amet elvis and we started kind of relationship. he was not my kind of guy. you had marlon brando on this side and elvis presley. he was beautiful, he was handsome. beautiful face. he was a country boy. he did not have a whole lot to say. imagine theyot come any more charismatic than brando. >> i do not think that elvis is charismatic. that word does not apply to him. would steal the room the moment he entered into it. tavis: you and i were supposed to do this for one night and i

have barely scratched the surface. if you will stay right there, i would like to do this again tomorrow night. >> i would love to, but i will be in new york. tomorrow night, we will continue this. you caught up with me. " rita book is called moreno." moree a whole lot questions. as always, keep the faith. >> for more information on today's show, visit tavis smiley at pbs.org. tavis: hi, i'm tavis smiley. join me next timefor part two of our conversation with rita moreno. that is next time.

>> there is a saying that dr. king had that said there is always the right time to do the right thing. i try to live my life every day by doing the right thing. we know that we are only halfway to completely eliminating hunger and we have work to do. walmart committed $2 billion to fighting hunger in the u.s. as we work together, we can stamp hunger out. >> and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> be more. pbs. >> be more. pbs. pbeat theme music ♪)

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