What Women Binge: Rita Moreno Interviewed by Melissa Joan Hart (2022)

I just wanted to go I've never seen anyone with your energy you're astonishing let me show you the wonders of old days should we bring her in let's do it hey everybody Welcome to what women then season four season four baby we did it we were in season four like in the series sitcom world this would be like this is what we call syndication this is when like the big money yeah that's when like the big money rolls in on when you're on a TV show is season four don't be fooled there's no big money in pod in podcasting we're doing this for fun um but actually on that note if you guys want to help us out at all um to be able to share this with friends subscribe subscribing helps us yes review also just I mean supporting our our um all of our advertisements like um just checking them out even just clicking on their page that'd be great taking advantage of the codes we give you guys out there that really helps us but really what we want you to do is just listen in so thanks for being here and we're so excited about our guest today but first I want to um I want to tell you what I'm I'm binging what are we binging it's just football season I'm binging football and matcha lattes I'm not the Pumpkin Spice Girl haters are singing exactly it is not pumpkin spice season yeah speaking of cicadas they've been ruining the movie I was doing I've been directing um with our guest today for those of you that can see me I have a shirt of Our Guest today who is one of the most spectacular women I've ever met I mean chronic iconic like I I listened to her audiobook which I highly recommend um in the car like just to prepare for her voice and how she likes to work and you know just to know some of her stories this woman is 90 years old and like and that's better than me as a six-year-old I mean she yeah she has like the brain power of like a 20 year old like med student who like it working with her has been incredible and you guys are gonna get a taste of that today because you're gonna spend some time with her too but let me give you a proper introduction to our wrist or Miss Rita Moreno ready here's what I wrote um she's a rare breed performer known as an egot right yeah that's Emmy hang on Emmy Oscar Tony and the g granny Emmy Grammy Oscar and Tony yep and not only that she's a p God she won a Peabody she also got the the medal of freedom from Obama was it Obama I think it was Obama I mean she and and then SAG Awards and dozens dozens of others right she has tons of awards on her shelves um she started dancing when she was nine years old her mom moved here here from Puerto Rico to New York um and it's interesting in her book she describes it as like this colorful Paradise of Puerto Rico to come to like the black and white version of New York City like very like Mona like like almost like going from like a beautiful paradise of like fruits and flavors and colors and sounds and smells to like New York which I always I it reminded me that I felt that way about New York when I was little now of course I adore New York it's like my favorite place right and I plan on like being an old lady there someday but um it's for her it was like this kind of a black and white monochrome like um prison like just smelled bad and like loud sounds she must have gotten there during the summer yeah probably probably well she'd never seen snow before and all that stuff her book is really describes it really really well I mean it's been 81 years since she moved here and started dancing right is that insane and um you guys probably know her best for her oscar-winning role as Anita in the original West Side Story and she revised it recently in the latest Spielberg directed version so I'm directing someone this made me very nervous I'm directing this movie Santa boot camp for a lifetime and the last person she worked with was Spielberg I was like no pressure whatever but not only that she also was in The King and I Singing in the Rain she's been on uh oh her extensive time on the great white way on Broadway um she long-running shows like Oz and Jane the Virgin she played in oh and then of course she did one day at a time recently which a lot of people know her from the younger generation probably knows her from one day at a time the revamped version of that she had a long and well documented romance with Marlon Brando um and in order to try to make Marlon jealous she tried to get with Elvis she talks about it all in her book you guys it's insane it's so funny um she's very open about all of it she has powerful vocal cords mesmerizing dance moves I actually someone was listening to something of hers on YouTube the other day on set and I was like who's that she was like that's me I was like what she's this tiny itty-bitty woman with this powerful voice it's insane she's a multi-hyphenite who stands a test of time like no one I've ever met and directing her in Santa boot camp has been an absolute career highlight for me so should we bring her in let's do it guys this is Rita Moreno Amanda you know I love gifts yes I love giving gifts I love giving and receiving gifts and we have gifts now to give and receive we have merchandise we have merchandising louder for those in the back we've got merchandise so you guys can check out what women binge Merchant dies now give it to your best friends give it to your two-year-old I don't know grab it for yourself and put it under the tree because we all know how this mom Life Works teachers mailman you know exchange students whoever you want to give it to just hand out our merch keep it for yourself if you want to I'm going to share it with you Amanda I have matching merch let's do it all right and right now you can find our merch where Amanda on what womenbinge.com check out our merch guys we want to welcome into the studio Miss Rita Moreno excited you're here cheering for the Spanish woman oh my gosh my favorite Puerto Rican thank you well as you know I loved love love loved your book and I have loved working with you and just learning about you your story we're having such a good time aren't we we are having such a good time yeah we are we're shooting a movie called Santa boot camp for a lifetime that'll be out sometime around thanks it's a Christmas movie right and I've never done one so I'm just thrilled to pieces and you know it's it's I'm gonna be just I'm just going to tell you that you're gonna love the way it looks oh yeah if you don't even care about the story stay with us because it looks gorgeous and so Ultra Christmasy the costumes are wonderful oh the costumes are insane our friend Anna is building the costumes and she is something else wow she's so talented she is and there and the great thing is we work together on like the vision for this film which was so fun between production design and wardrobe and being able to pull a vision together like that I haven't really been able to do that before really and it was fun especially your last outfit which I don't want to spoil for everyone but my nine-year-old is obsessed with you like madly in love with you Riker left he's like is that Tucker Tucker who worked with you Tucker's in the movie you guys so he's got like two pages and he's actually kind of good in it like it's like great he's kind of natural which was a little scary and wonderful I was so but the funny thing is to hear a young actor saying mom in the middle of attack why would I do just telling him what what to do and all that while it was still real well Mr Rooney is saying mom and he turns into a nine-year-old and he said to me something like you have to stop sick because I always go once more one more time one more time one more time and he's like stop saying one more time you have to say again I'm like all right I'll say again sorry and he's right I say one more time yeah but we know what that means yeah it is that's true but it's so funny because I mean I was thinking about he went home well first on the stage before he knew that you played Belle so your character's name is Belle right he he knows Rita but he didn't know that you were Belle and so he sees in the script that he's supposed to be talking to Belle or about Belle and he's like you know I'm not going to do it unless Bell is here like you need to get the actor in here so I can have a good eye line so I know who you're talking about I was like oh my gosh a little diva seriously and I said well miss Rita is resting right now oh oh it's Rita okay we will okay okay you can just all right then she doesn't have to come out I didn't know Rita was Belle I'm like okay and then you come out and he is like eyed and talks about you all night we had to watch West Side Story that night we had to see all your dance numbers obviously yes you have got a thing with the men man you are interesting my son was only on set for like a few hours and he came home he told all his sisters my husband everyone who would listen about how enchanting you were he was like she was so funny we laughed so hard I'm very silly you are I'm a very very mischievous person truly I love mischief so if I can possibly help it I I'm always cracking up or doing something stupid and like you were late on all levels I love it wait I want you to tell me about so we're doing our movie and of course it's fantastic but the one I'm really excited about that you have coming out is 80 for Brady yeah can you tell us about that movie 80 for Brady is a Tom Brady's first production or or project outside of football and the funny thing about it before I tell you my story is that we had to change the ending when he decided to unretire oh yeah to rewrite the ending of the of stars uh Jane Fonda myself Lily Tomlin and um Sally Field oh to be a fly on the wall is that is that amazing I was amazed when they offered it to me I said really for those ladies really and uh it's about very briefly it's about four old ladies I mean the baby of our group is Sally Struthers who's 76. I am 90. and I believe that Jane is something like 82 something like that anyway we're four old ladies who just love Tom Brady and football and in a sense it's sort of kind of a quasi-road movie on what happens when we're trying to go to to Houston to attend a um a Super Bowl that we can't even afford so you know there's Adventures on the road but um the story I want to tell you about me and Jane is that one day we were sitting there in the dark just waiting for a uh a scene to start and we were sitting outside of the set and uh Jane looks at me and she says Rita you're 90 right yeah and she said how do you feel about sex I mean well that's the kind of question that Jane would ask yeah it was just very simple how do you feel about sex and I said you mean the actual thing she said yeah I said ew oh please no no and then she said I feel the same way you know it's like it's it's over I'm not interested not interested okay cut two a scene about three days later where we're supposed to enter a re we they used a real locker room and in that locker room is a Gronk is that his name yep yep Danny oh God he's so gorgeous Justin uh that's the one I did the same I have trouble with uh names are they all Buccaneers do they all play with Tom Brady on his team of course that's why they were there but they're you know they're pretty gorgeous man they're they're Hefty and yeah handsome Danny is particularly just I mean that is a poke chop [Laughter] so we we enter the four of us as the characters that we're playing enter this locker room I mean I had no idea and these four guys were all bare chested because it's a locker room scene and so is Tom Brady but we've already met Tom not and I don't want to say but it's like he's not exactly uh he's uh not chopped liver right now either anyway we enter into my absolute astonishment I take one breath and I go oh my God [Music] the Pharaohs all these naked men in the room I'm a 90 year old and suddenly you're ready to change a nine-year-old bitty and I'm saying to myself I'm saying to myself [Laughter] seven but I swear to God I appreciate it I felt them Fair homes but your kind of language I felt them ferals right down to my to my Jane also a place of Love did Jane agree no so here's the thing so I do the scene with the Jason Justin Adelman who was just a doll and he's known for his beard and we do this little scene where I'm doing this to his I mean she says I want to shave you my character my character kind of loves men as well that's pretty close his name is Moira and and uh and we did an improvisation we made it up the director said just make something up and boy did I make it up in fact the director at some point had to say uh Rita [Laughter] I said okay all right okay I understand anyway so about four hours later I run into Jane because she wasn't in those scenes and I said Jane you remember the question you asked me the other day about sex and she said yeah I said I take it all back and she said you're like I would climb Gronk like a Christmas tree [Laughter] well that isn't what I had in mind but that's pretty good got Christmas on the brain you know yeah the squid yeah climbing up here my boy let me show you the wonders of old days I love it I love it isn't that crazy that's fine I mean I had no idea that there was even a hint of that in me still that you get the the hormones and nobody had even said anything it's not like anybody's just walked in and you got I just took a breath and went oh god oh [ __ ] oh boy I love it I love it I've been boy crazy my whole life sounds like you have to right boy crazy yeah absolutely I mean I've been married for 20 years and you had a very long you were with bunny for 46 years 46 years that's my husband and Marlon Brando for eight eight yeah and uh Elvis for about two weeks that's I mentioned that because in your book it's so fascinating to me the whole thing how Marlin and you had this like tumultuous relationship yes you would say right yes crazy it was crazy and so he and you were trying to make him jealous by going with Elvis well I got very angry one day because I found somebody's uh lingerie oh the polite way to put it in his house I call it underwear but never mind and I was I was really angry and hurt and all that kind of and I went home in tears and I didn't understand that he was not the kind of man who would ever be faithful to anybody anyway I went home and I was just weeping and the very next day I get this phone call hello hello Miss Rita Marina I said yes I don't do the accent well so forgive me yeah yes he said this is Connell Parker he said um my client is uh Elvis Presley and uh he saw you in the 20th Century Fox commissary the other day and he lacked what he saw and he said and I'm just googly-eyed and he said and he would like to meet you would you like to meet him and I thought of that underwear and I said yes I would I'd like to climb that like a tree yes yes I would and he this was the day before all of these social things social networks and stuff nobody ever heard everything so I dated him a few times and it got into the gossip columns I mean it got into the glass of poems like that night is that is that a time period when that used to be set up on on purpose too like dates like that sometimes but this wasn't set up by anybody this was because this is just Elvis liking you and and Marlon heard about it and he was Furious he I mean he's the one who had the ladies underwear you know you know how that goes and he was Furious and he was throwing chairs it was wonderful so it worked but I love that in the book you also say Elvis wouldn't like he wouldn't he like he I forgot how you said it he wouldn't he wouldn't do the Deeds yeah he wouldn't do the D which was just fascinating like to uh what do we call it dry food yeah that's what he was doing I thought strange I never had that experience before but you say in the book too I think it's interesting because you mentioned that like was it his Christian upbringing that like he just wouldn't allow himself to go there or was it a a self um inflicted you know I I have no idea a release thing yeah he obviously like brunettes yeah he ended up with this beautiful girl um but that's what happened and I thought I'm not interested in not only that you know he was a simple boy he said he was very boring I did was sweet he's very sweet and that's kind I don't know about it he was sweet yeah he was he was only boring because I was going with someone who was Dynamic I mean this was the king of movies yeah this was the king of music yeah on one side but the other one was the king of dynamism and stuff yeah Moody and all that I mean that's sexy stuff yeah so if you went for the opposite I found Elvis boring he wasn't boring I was just bored by him because I had this other guy in my life who was constantly making trouble for me and and we had a sexual thing going that was ridiculous well I feel like at that age too you you know you kind of go for there's something called hybristophilia where you're attracted to the bad boy as opposed to what is that called hybristophilia I'm writing a script about it you can be in that movie too but yeah it's about like being attracted to the bad boy and um and and like being like literally physically attracted to like men in prison and um like that's what hybristophilia particularly is but like you know basically it's that whole like bad boy a really bad boy but like there is a thing about especially when we're young and dumb right we're like into the bad boy more than we're into the good guy but you know but I'll tell you something darling was really a fascinating guy he was insanely uh smart and you are there as well that makes a good match well I had Street smarts because I'm not educated I mean I quit High School in the first year but you pick everything up so quickly too but I'm one of those people who was able to pick up so I am very street smart and I'm very instinctive and that's where he and I locked horns because I could read him like a bloody book it's like he he was saying without saying you know me you know I can't do any [ __ ] with you and it was true I was so good at that so it was what a relationship it lasted on and off for about eight years and then you and you're a big part of the Civil Rights movements and stuff too as well right because he was as well big big deal but that was before Marlon actually I started that way before Marlon he helped me he educated me somewhat with that kind of uh thing but uh I started that before then well in your whole book your book about all the different roles that you things you were offered and jobs you would take and what you had to play and what you had to do and how you know looking back on it now like things like in The King and I and um and I played the princess yeah and you're and you were always playing like sort of the ethnic role in Island girls only I could only play people with dark skin even though you're very fair skinned yeah I'm one of the fair-skinned Puerto Ricans you know but uh this is what's fascinating about that uh oh there's a lot that's fascinating it was the name oh Moreno yeah or as they would say Mourinho I remember my name was Rosa Dolores alverio alvario was my first Father's my real father's last name and then I had four three other stepfathers and which also made me think don't marry a Latino whatever you do because they will leave you the truth is is my mother left them oh my mother was very uh undeveloped she was really a simple she didn't finish school she was amazing actually but um the casting director at MGM that was my very first Studio where I was under contract and he called for me one day took me into his office and he says we have changed your name and uh I said why he said honey it's just too Italian [Laughter] Ralph Moreno is Italian and so he said uh and he kept offering names that were so hideous one was he said with a big smile oh what about what about Orchid Montenegro what is that your Alias when you stayed a hotel it should be as compliant as I was I thought I'm gonna have to live with this for the rest of my life I said I don't think so he said who's your favorite actress I said Reed Hayworth and he said well let's call you Rita Marino which is of course it's Moreno as you said and I didn't want to argue I said okay that's fine but I love that your name's too Italian oh my gosh that's funny yeah so um so we have to we have to talk to you about what you like and by the way guys if you want to hear I mean all your stories are fantastic in the book and I love the audiobook because I can hear you yeah do the accent the accents oh and and of course I want to talk about Lenny though too and your beautiful daughter like um Your Love Affair your love your 46 Your Love with your man um you married you ended up marrying so you went through all these tumultuous relationships but you ended up with a man named Leonard new Jordan who was a Jewish doctor nice Jewish doctor and when we decided that we really were a good pair we let both families know and it was hilarious both in the Bronx the Jews and the Puerto Ricans the Puerto Ricans are saying and the Jews is saying they were not happy so I said to my mom who was not thrilled I said I wanted to meet Lenny you will love him and he really was a very gentle kind of man very uh bright very intelligent all that kind of stuff and a doctor so I said to Mom here's what we do I want you to meet him because I know you're going to change your mind instantly I said let's have him come over to your apartment and I'll be there and we'll all just you know make friends okay so Lenny comes to the apartment knocks on the door wait I don't think she even had a doorbell knocks on the door she opens the door and he said hello I'm she said juareu and he said excuse me are you that's all I want to know and he said Jess yes I am he actually said Jess Jeff and he came in and of course he made friends he was and he was funny oh he had a great sense of humor which to me is so important yeah to me say a sense of humor in a man is sexy oh yeah I really do I believe that that's what Elvis was probably missing that's what he Elvis maybe didn't have a sense of humor I don't think so oh yeah you know sweet yes you just want to pinch his cheeks there's a boy and I was I was already you know with Marlon so I was pretty sophisticated at that point and Lenny could Lenny held his own with you Lenny and he and he you know I just had this feeling that he would take care of me but here's the interesting thing which I mentioned in my documentary and it's so important for people to understand this people when they fall in love more often than not will collude with each other in this way I would say to Lenny but I never said it out loud it was just understood I would say if you'll be my daddy I will be your little girl and you will take care of me for the rest of our lives and his thing was I will be your caretaker and your daddy and we will be live happily ever after until that is you want to suddenly grow up and that doesn't work anymore and that's when our marriage really started to disintegrate because I mean he was he was he was also a kind of controlling man we had you you read my book yeah remember the banana incident oh yeah how to peel a banana yeah he actually said to me one day I was I think I was cutting it so I didn't have to deal with the peel and all that I just pulled the peeler he said that's the way to peel a banana and I said I mean he said well you don't you don't peel it with a knife you know you do this and that we had a half hour long argument yeah and it got worse and worse and I finally said to him are you listening to what you're saying are you hearing yourself he really didn't understand he had to have his way you peel it this way uh you know it was bizarre yeah yeah there's those there's those breaking points in every marriage we had a fight about ketchup my husband and I remember one of our first big fights that one he oh I had gone to college we were gonna have a barbecue and I gone to Costco and we got in these huge you know you get like two in a pack of the big ketchups and we had we had a refrigerator and a pantry and I like mine in the fridge and he I don't know in the South room temperature he likes her room temperature which I didn't think was it's a vegetable it needs to go in the fridge like and we had two though so I put one on each place no no I didn't know that but at the time I'd always had ketchup in the fridge and I was like I put it in the fridge and he lost it on me you don't put ketchup show me on the package where it says must refrigerate show me on the package why do you think at restaurants they leave it on the table you don't have to you don't have to put in the fridge and I took the bottle out of the fridge and hoisted it at him I knew it was a football player and he'd catch that but he caught it I threw it right at his head he caught it and I said I didn't know that when I took your last name I had to take your condiment preferences too and I threw it out then he picked me up and put me outside on top of the car and locked the door so I crawled through the doggy door it became it was like a funny fight it picked you up pick me up because I'm like your size right like he picked me up and put me outside he's giant he put me on top of the car Marlon did that with me and he'd put me in a shower in a cold shower oh really it was very sexy and it turned into something else oh of course of course yeah well this became like you know me throwing the ketchup at him became like yeah it kind of did become hot in a way because it wasn't a real fight we knew it was a stupid fight you know but yeah I climbed through the doggy door like I was like oh you can't keep me out and I'm like climbing through the doggy door and stuff and then we just started laughing I'm trying to get through the dog because he locked the door he's like you can stay out there if you have the giant dogs too oh yeah it was a big Doggy Dog it was a big doggy door I could get in that one yeah no problem I just knew I was like how am I gonna get in the house people can be so stupid I know in their relationships yeah okay but on the other hand you know he really was it it it got to the point where he would be very worried about I was out of the house for more than a couple of hours and if I had told him I was going to the beach he'd call me wherever I was um and that got this is Marlin or Lenny Lenny no this is Lenny Lenny would do that yeah and actually I Now understand something that I really didn't occur to me then I think he was going into a form of mild dementia oh what caused he spent all day in his in the office and in order to be with him I would make him something he liked and I would make him a big mug of tea because he loved his tea with honey and all that and I would bring a tray down and you know do that kind of thing and uh he would appreciate it but he wouldn't leave the office it was very sad and I really didn't understand I honest to God I was so angry with him so much of the time but that was was that just a hurdle you had to overcome and then you were able to and never got to overcome oh really oh it got his his dementia got worse he was really uh and I didn't think of it as that then yeah because he wasn't behaving in a crazy way or you know saying weird things like small slips yeah exactly yeah it was very sad and tell us about your daughter I know you're saying oh my God your grandson her name is Fernanda uh Fernanda Luisa it was Fernanda Luisa Gordon and now it's Fernando Luisa Fisher she is the light of my life except for the fact that she gave me two grandsons that I I could just you know inhale them I adore them and and they know it too Grammy I need a bless everybody I wonder if you could um all right you're the dirt and Grandma I always hear being a grandma is better than being a parent in a way it's terrific yeah except you can't be with them all the time and now they're really interesting because they're in their 30s their twenties their 20s yeah the firstborn is Justin it was so good looking and he's six foot tall and he has this kind of build probably like your son yeah you know his feet and then he's long and leaned and he's handsome so and the other one uh it was the baby he's 20. one I believe 22. he's uh finishing his last year of uh school at Boston uh as a screenwriter he hopes oh wow yeah he's the intellectual okay and the Justin the new the uh firstborn is the uh the one with all the energy and stuff the entrepreneur and it gets from you Grammy I'm starting a little um leisure suit then can you help us out so I'm involved in that and uh cool soon we will be uh putting it on my uh Instagram and what's your uh what's the name of it it's called shoulder because he's a uh with an r instead of er okay and it's it's written down on it and it's called that because he uh he serves oh and there's something about shoulder that you do yeah when you're surfing oh very cool that's what it's about it is his dad my son-in-law is a surfer too so yeah and they all live in California normally when they're out in school the the uh Justin now lives where he went to school which is uh Denver Colorado okay he loves it there it's really nice great place I love mountain towns I'm a mountain girl and when they were when he was in school they had skiing all the time oh yeah oh my God he's he's very good physically from the time he was Tiny that's actually in Tahoe um in the winter time our kids used to get off uh school at halfway through Wednesday to go ski oh yeah ski day yeah I do I love to ski it's like my only hobby I'm so tired all that's a long way to fall down it is but you know it's a long way when you're 5'2 I have news for you so we have to ask you what you're into we we talk about what people binge and just I mean now that we know a little bit more about you know all the inside stories of your work we want to know what do you love books movies podcasts what are you into what are you watching what do you listen to what do you inhale I listen to music all the time and I listen to all kinds of music I you know I'm from another era so I love Sinatra Tony Bennett those people Rosemary Clooney I love that music and you know I had a uh concert show for years and years and years where I sang yeah and dance in fact Fernanda my daughter would dance with me and we used to do America from West Side Story together oh really so she and I started when uh she was 16 we started doing theater work and the very first thing we did which was really a handful was uh Shakespeare Taming of the Shrew oh wow oh that's my favorite isn't that fun it's sexy too yeah it's sexy and uh I remember it was so funny because I I swore to myself that if we were going to do things together I would not make her feel guilty about not having enough Talent or whatever we were just gonna have fun together and we did and I did one smart thing I would tell the cast of whatever production we were doing I take them all by themselves before we started rehearsals and I say look I'm aware that you're probably saying yeah well it's her daughter and I said you know what you're right that's exactly what we're doing and if she's not up to par as she probably won't be uh I hope you understand but I hope you understand that I understand what you're feeling um so everybody always respected that put that out there yeah but when we were doing the first thing Taming of the shoe she was playing my nasty little I was Katarina and she was playing obianca the younger sister and I swear to God when she started talking about me and it was thee and thou and this that I just wanted to go oh I had to absolutely control myself because she was so cute she may not have been great but she sure was cute that's how I feel about Tucker and Santa boot camp like I'm like because he gets to these moments where I'm like oh I believe him like I believe him for a second and he's my baby boy again yeah and then we danced because she uh she always wanted to be a dancer from the time she was a little girl this was in New York so she went to uh ballentine's uh Ballet company for classes so she got to be a really good dancer and I remember seeing her in a number of Productions particularly at Christmas when they did The Nutcracker Suite yeah and she'd be one of many little soldiers you know with the little red cheeks and stuff and she'd be watching she'd be following the lead dancer you know who it could be the like the fairy of something yeah the Sugar Plum Fairy Sugar Plum Fairy and I would of course I would be trained only on Fernanda and I'd see her watching that saying I want to do that someday yeah we had we had a great time oh that's great and there was a great dancing class that I found out from Gwen verden the Broadway musical star she said does your daughter dance I said she wants to she said before she goes to real dance class take her to this place and you know what it was it was so smart it was a place where little kids who wanted to dance but were really too young would go and the teacher would say okay go across the room like you're a rubber band no dance steps yeah or do this and that pretend you're uh you know you're a peach falling from a tree whatever it was that's cute and I'm using exercises gave them it gave them a sense of movement without sticking them with steps which are too complicated yeah he was five yeah you know she loved it and if you got bored you could go down the the uh slide they had a slide there it was marvelous we have a slide here are you gonna go on the slide here [Laughter] it's actually technically like two two yeah never it's it's a long slide there's like five turns it was a poor decision on my part no it was you always say that it's so cute I love it so cute I love that people can actually it's a little it's a little scary it's a little intimidating I'm not sure when I was on it because you'd hear oh oh Rita's on the thing can you imagine put read on the slide you would never leave you'd be on it over and over again you just go up and down up and down you're probably right so we ask everyone certain questions and you're our first guest of season four oh great we're gonna ask you some new questions that nobody's ever heard before alrighty let's see I need my glasses because the eyes today yes um if you could live life as any character in any book show or movie who would you be what a wonderful question I oh I would be Dumbo's mommy oh oh that's so sad so heartbreaking that's so sad that I can't I still can't see that remember when he's in in the little jails and she rocks him she picks him up with her trunk that used to be painted on my kid's Nursery wall I wept and I still weed I can't watch it it's so brutal actually I watched it again when my son was born in 2006 like maybe 2008 we watched it together and I was like everyone talks about Bambi being said but I'm sorry Dumbo's the saddest because they made fun of him with his big funny ears they lock her up which was you know a wonderful message because what it really meant was when someone's different be nice to them be nice to them be be mindful of how they feel about it all the old bitty um elephants are like nasty to them right yes oh they're awful yeah they make fun of him and they put him in the overly large ears clown makeup like everybody's really really mean to him except for the mouse and even the mouse kind of uses them to be famous you and I think the same way yeah I would be dumb Dumbo's mommy but it's funny because at the very end the last second of the movie he's on the Caboose right he's flying holding mom's trunk she's waving at him on the back it's like the only time you see her out of out of trouble like she's I know that is a very sad one Rita yeah it is it is but it's a good one I wouldn't have thought of that um if you had to pick a genre to describe your life what would it be well name a genre because I don't know what you mean oh there's like horror [Laughter] I think a genre it would be like right now being an outlier being an outsider okay yeah absolutely I I spent a lot of years being that yeah not my choice but you know when you're a little here's something interesting when you're a child you are way more tender than people think you are because you're loud and you can whine a lot but people forget that children are very tender and if you're told often enough that you're a [ __ ] or you're a garlic mouth or you don't have any value you believe it because you're little you're young and you don't understand why you're not worthy but you know that you are and I remember I never shared that with my mom because I instinctively knew that there was nothing she could do about it oh yeah yeah that makes sense yeah that makes a lot of sense yeah I was Dumbo you were dumbled oh um if you could choose any actor or actress to play you in your life story who would you pick nobody I refuse it I reject it I don't want to be here when that happens who would play Marlin well it could be uh Brad Cooper oh like Chris Hemsworth like like a little like well Chris is too pretty okay that's what I was but I thought Marcus Ryan was fast he looked like a Roman coin actually but no it would have to be somebody who's really essentially just has this wonderful magnetism and there are actors like that right now yeah yeah you're right Bradley Cooper's a good choice oh we wanted to tell you though Amanda you wanted to ask her about Evelyn Hugo have you read Evelyn who you go yeah the book called The Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo no is it not it reminds us of you I was listening to yours it's a novel and it is it's fabulous and it's set in the 50s 60s yeah and I was reading it while I was listening to yours and I was like these are very similar so we want you to read it to see it if ever if you influence the book company the writer is Taylor Reed Jenkins we'll send you a copy also yeah do it on audiobook or something I'll get it to you tomorrow that sounds good it really reminds me of you because it's a I forget where she's from it's not is she Mexican Colombian something she's from somewhere else she comes to the U.S she becomes a big film star is around all the big Hollywood people she's in a remake of like it's all it's all it's all Fiction it's gonna be I think it will be it will be soon but she is she basically she hires a writer she's she's later on in life and she's hired a girl from a local like a like a like a tabloid magazine to write about her life she's finally going to tell the secrets of her life and she's had seven husbands and which one is the true life oh yeah which one's the true love is kind of the the digging out of and it's all and it's like it just reminds me a lot of the flavors of like who she has to date and marry and who she has to go out with and um and just being a part of the Hollywood scene back then and right and she was always known to be in like emerald green she always wore green yeah and so it's just it's really fascinating but there's a few different stories unfolding but you hear this whole Hollywood side of her yeah because my Hollywood Story is sad had there was so many you know so many things I just I I just thought wow I'm on contractor MGM I'm going to be a big star oh yeah and you know they did all the great musicals then right more than the other Studios and I thought this is I can't believe my good luck and it turned out to be something much less than that yeah remember the scene in the book about when I fell off a cliff I'm supposed to fall off a cliff and there were uh it's a scene where I I'm so disappointed in my white lover uh oh yeah that I back away and I fall off this cliff and and land in water and there's and then the next thing you see is this character uh laying down and the laps you know the water laps are like moving her and uh the water was filled with thousands of little stinging jellyfish oh the little ones so they don't kill you but they sting and the director said what the hell is wrong with you stop moving you're supposed to be dead and I said but but is the stinging jellyfish he says I don't care he said I don't actually said I don't give a [ __ ] he said you just do what you're supposed to do oh wow well I was playing an Indian girl and he was treating me like what he thought that kind of character was like she's not supposed to have opinions oh it was just it was such an Awakening saw a lot of yeah and you've seen a lot of change gracious especially in this industry yeah where it was so new in the beginning I just have to ask you though did you ever run into Shirley Temple she's like my idol so no no I didn't wasn't she wondering oh my gosh I because I just like as starting out as a little girl and seeing her and going she can sing dance and act I don't want to be sure and she was so beautiful yeah she was and then she get like 21 she quit I know she was like smart what a smart thing to do we asked her to play my grandma on Sabrina yeah and she was like she I think wrote or called someone and left A really lovely message about I I would love to but I quit the business a long time ago and if I say yes to you I have to say yes to everyone else right and she I'm sure she invited me to her house I got to come I got to go meet her but I just wondered if you ever worked with her or anything wow I got a Christmas card do you remember her tap dancing with Bojangles oh of course wasn't that the best scene where's the staircase scene the first time yes um an interracial couple held hands right on on film right so oh I just yeah uh in little kernel the little colonel which is one of my favorites I mean is that crazy a black person a little girl held hands and it made news and it made big news yeah it was crazy and it was her apparently according to her book he was like I I don't like that's not like I don't want to upset anyone I'm not going to do that and she just grabbed his hand and was like let's go and like that's the thing about innocent little kids right and like I always love that about her that like I felt like she was you know yeah she just she she was like a little bit ahead of her time in a way of like just being very passionate in her in her career but then knowing when enough was enough and it was like I'm done what else I always thought that was so smart yeah and then when people for one thing crazy that's right but the thing is that uh oh I forgot what I was going to say okay that's an example of being 90. it's also you know it's a it's a random day when we're exhausted from work and whatnot no I have no excuse but thank you um well I've seen you on set you remember 10 pages of lines like no one I've ever seen by the way hard oh and you've been when you're 90 that's hard but you and like you just deliver like you know I might see that you're struggling with a line but the next time you say it it's like bam the performance like your face lights up what did I say on set that confused you I was like you you gave a performance and I was like Mike drop and she's like did the mic drop oh no I mean like mic Drop Like that's why you're Rita like and then I thought oh oh thank you oh it was amazing I was just like every time I see her I'm just like watching the monitor like she just killed that line it's like awesome all right back to the questions um what's the best TV theme song in your opinion oh I I loved um I love the one from you know I'm not going to say names because I can't remember them but um oh Mary Tyler Moore is that oh no no um or or um she throws the hat in the air yeah I love that girl but it's true back then I love that they use the theme songs to help explain the show like and you know what I also love the theme song to The Alan Alda series uh what was it that's a great one too such a good and I know the guy who I used to know the guy who wrote that yeah Johnny gee I can even remember no I know I'm kidding wait speaking of mash are your co-star who plays um your bell and he's Chris like Chris Kringle and he's um John Chuck is uh was it from the original Mash movie oh speaking of mash that's right that's right um okay what's the hardest part of your job as an actor oh I'll tell you it's it's really not a difficult answer the hardest part of my job is having to do a scene that's badly written and not being able to help it and there's a lot of bad writing around really a lot of bad writing around and uh and you know I try in my nice way to fix it a little bit and and the director will say or the writer if he's on the set will say no no I want it this way and I just you know I I just have to swallow hard yeah and this happens all the well you know you've seen those did you ever see that thing with the lily Lily Tomlin Lily Tomlin being told off and called horrible names by David oh oh this was a little while ago right oh yeah but it's a famous thing because he was so mean to actors he apparently he still is David oh yeah and and he called her David O Russell and he called her the c word oh yes I do remember that and uh she's just she was amazing she just kept trying to defend herself well like you know I'm just trying to he's no you yeah and screaming at the top of it is a famous what happened is that the cameraman who was used to this at this point on this particular film whatever that was just let the film go running oh yeah so they've done this a couple of times to him I mean apparently there was a scene with Chris uh oh God don't do names Rita please just a very famous actor and I heard this this may not be so I want to be clear about this but it probably it makes sense to me that this guy said okay now do it in French oh say what you know that kind of thing yeah and the actor just went you know I'm leaving let me know when you're you know yeah when you're calm again oh goodness me yeah there are some there's some but you know I I wonder too why the why is it that the man has never been reprimanded by Screen Actors Guild oh still I don't know about it oh interesting oh we'll dig into it isn't that I would love to find out yeah is this the weather abuse yeah my door um here's a fun one do you have a favorite joke I love jokes yeah but it involves a an infirmity and I I can't do it okay okay you like dirty jokes is what we're getting here oh do I like dirty jokes well if they're clever okay I mean there's a lot of dirty jokes that are just mostly dirty and I'm going yeah yeah go away um what is a movie show Channel or something that you turn on to tune out well I'll do the uh music station a lot I'll do Pandora a lot and I love also I love um Spanish guitar music it's from Spain guitar music it's I love that kind of music you still dance I move yes you do no I but I just I just barely my knees are so shot from all those years of dancing you know we abuse ourselves dancers are terrible you're like you're you're like 60. I mean you the 30 years in some ways my knees are really really well you the other day on set you were in heels for eight hours standing most of the time and you didn't complain for a second little heels I can wear little heels I'm 46 and I don't want to wear heels at all like I'm I'm I won't even wear my flip-flops on set because I want good cushion I'm 36 and recovering from one night of heels last night oh yeah it will take me a week before you use those very high ones no I mean I'm already tall so I don't need a high heel but just a little we're so out of yeah I love them and I I have a Madness for shoes and my daughter said when she was a little girl she says I think I inherited the shoe jeans from you this little girl and when I was giving them up the heels and I had great great shoes because I'm a shoe maniac and she said you're giving them to the consignment store I said yeah it breaks my heart but you know might as well make some money at it she said but why can't you just keep them I said why would I keep them she said well you could look at them like in a museum my son actually understands that he's a sneaker head my 14 year old and he has them in like acrylic boxes in his room stacked with LED lights between like he's decorated his room with a shoe collection that he won't wear because he doesn't want to crease them but you wore some red shoes on the movie Yes it was so cute she's in this fabulous outfit that Anna had made for but she goes but look at the shoes and you were so excited about your shoes they were they were fantastic I can wear little heels those are the red ones right yes yes I saw them beautiful so gorgeous they were gorgeous um uh if this week was a book title what would it be we're gonna work all night oh yeah yeah then you need a picture we can work the whole night when we're supposed to be sleeping and now we're gonna do some night shoots this week we're gonna be doing some night shoots I'll get you out early Rita I'll put you in there early I'll get you out yeah I'm too old for that oh I understand I am too no you're not I've never seen anyone with your energy you're astonishing that's how I feel about you non-stop you do not stop somebody no she doesn't never I and you know what's lovely about her too as a director she's very patient she's very you never ever feel judged by her that's important thank you and directors could be very mean yeah yeah I know and I you know direct for that kind of sarcastic Underneath It All and you know you know you're being disliked or criticized but they don't come out with it because they're too chicken [ __ ] yeah to just be honest about it well that's what I you I mean first of all you're not gonna tell an egot no you know hey can you you know well I would tell an egot I mean if they're acting up no no but you don't act out but you but like I'll come to you when there's a line and I need a certain word in there or something we're not we're missing something but and you'll be like oh great fabulous yes absolutely and it's such a good collaboration with you I love it I love it well that's what it is actually you know it really is the whole thing it's a collaboration between the writer and the director and the actor yeah yeah and for the director it's with the actor the A.D and the um cinematographer we have to explain A.D to the public oh the ad is an assistant director basically a stage manager that's right for those that don't understand and then the cinematographer Dirty Work what's the uh what's the saying who said the um famous saying about like you don't sleep with the director you sleep with the cinematographer to make you look beautiful yeah well I'll tell you what I do every movie I make and when I first made the cinematographer that first morning I just say no I don't want to make you nervous but I look my age it's your ass you will never look your age no you're 30 years and of course the crew loves that yes I love to pick on it it's a hematographer because yeah but you have such a crush on our cinematographer Ryan Ryan Galvin who's gorgeous incredible he's gorgeous he's sweet what's his nationality he's uh he looks very exotic oh he's Mexican yeah wow good looking guy he is he is he's very sweet um I didn't say sweet oh I said good looking and I don't care sweetie dirty old lady yeah oh yeah um what is your go-to karaoke song I don't have one you don't do karaoke oh well I think you sing in the shower we're gonna need to all the time so what what song do you sing in the shower oh well yeah I do musicals I do musicals things from uh great musicals my favorite Christmas my favorite um uh birthday present for my daughter is and we're gonna repeat it this time we did it three years ago is to rent a car and go through New England and watch the leaves turning while we're doing that we're bellowing broadway songs at the top of our lungs and then stopping at little lens we have a travel agent book us and little ends and stuff what's one Broadway show that you would like I'd like to see if it is amazing I've never seen it on Broadway oh it's amazing but also you know it's a great great great one it's Guys and Dolls oh yeah and Marlon was doing it while we were going together really he was playing Sky Masterson oh very cool and he had a little voice luck be a lady tonight is your boy crazy um okay last one what is a well last one for now what is a line from a show or movie or book that you'll never forget well that's a hard one for someone who's having trouble remembering names what's a line I'll never forget oh smoke on your pipe and put that in dun dun dun dun dun dun dun I like to be in a I thought it was very clever it was such a clever spoke on your pipe and put that in that's great that's and the whole the whole song is so clever like oh it's a marvelous scent yeah it's got barbs in it too it's yeah it's not meant to be just funny well and it's still and it makes a statement it still stands yeah I mean I want to go home and watch it I know Tucker and I literally the other day Tucker's like I need just I was like she's in this amazing movie called West Side Story and he's like well I need to watch that and I was like okay we watched that number and he was like Wow and I was like do you understand what's going on between the Puerto Ricans and the Italians and the whole you know and he's like what like so yeah just incredible incredible movie obviously everybody knows it um so I just want to know how many unanswered emails do you think you have on your phone I know you didn't bring your phone in here but you know what not many and I'll tell you why because I never answer emails so my daughter and a bunch of people said do not email her unless you tell her 40 times in the text that you're emailing her and tell her you know once you think she's seen it do it again anyway yeah so there is an email that's the trick I just have to stop replying and then people won't email me anymore I won't because if you don't answer mine's at what's yours up Amanda you don't want to know I know I'm terrified right now I'm terrified I'm at 8 351 right now out oh my gosh man I've never seen them or you don't erase them no no I see them I thought I taught you better you how much I have but I've reverted to my I'm at 48. that's like the best I've been in a long time I actually do read them I look through them all but you don't erase them I don't erase them and if that is your how does your phone do that where does it get the cell energy I know they just sit there but the ones like that I've read you know are marked red now so I know if they were important and I can file them I've got little places where were you when we first started this podcast in January you were at like 22 000 or was it no no 92 000 92 000 82 000. but I don't know I I didn't know that a phone could function that way no doesn't that use a lot of energy I think it goes to the cloud and then it pulls it down when you get it like and the cloud goes not again yeah because I was like please delete some of them well and we're down to 8 000 now because Melissa was like delete them so I just went through and marked everything she marked everything red which I think is cheating it is you have to delete you might be missing something astonishing like being the heir to a million dollars oh I would definitely have that my dad's a plumber that's not gonna happen but I feel like I need to like come over and hold your hand we need to sit down meet at the coffee shop and we'll just like do a we'll do a little tutorial I do love you for I just feel like I don't want you to miss anything I'm just a girl you're looking at your best friend you're black girl check her emails you're blackmailing your friend I just want to be loud exactly and I'm like I'm I'm just a girl sitting here looking at my best friend saying please check your emails okay bye all right so Amanda's going to ask you we do these this or that like uh rapid fire question yeah they're just for funsies hero or villain villain hey okay okay plans are surprises surprises caffeine or alcohol chocolate or fruity fruity dress up or dress down dress up this one is obvious introvert or extrovert extrovert [Laughter] that's why we get along so well I know I love it fizzy or flat busy morning person or night owl both actually really depends if I'm if I'm working it's got to be obviously I have to be morning but if I'm not working it's night owl oh so you're going to be late fine with the night shoots this week right no because I have to remember words then words at night is not easy for me no no at any time no and looking pretty like looking pretty late at night it's just like you know when you feel the bags and you start you've got all this crap on your face yeah I read it's funny I don't like the way you make a food this is why I've started directing I don't have to do that I can wear whatever I want I can put on a little weight before I go home I have the makeup Lady clean it all off my face oh that's it and then puts hot towels on me yeah which feels a little spotless yeah yes so you go home feeling refreshed yes ready for bed and you know not only that if you have to get up early the next morning and you're really getting home on The Late side you don't want to have to do this you know how hard it is to take off eye makeup yes it's right away I by the way I know the thing that takes it off for right for real I'll tell you I don't remember the name I don't remember the name I don't remember the name oh real quick Oh wait we're finishing the rapid car questions I got two more righty or Lefty righty and staycation or vacation vacation [Music] um so wait I wanted you to you're obsessed with this it's the cutest thing like at lunch you're like I need my milk and then someone comes up right tell us about this milk okay listen I'm Puerto Rican which means I'm Latina and we have lactose problems the way the black community does so rather than you know drink real milk and start farting around somewhere on set with the body I think it behooves me to save everybody and drink a plant milk it's really very good for you the calcium this one's made from uh peas it doesn't have a milk taste so don't expect that but what it does have 50 percent more calcium and at my age that's really really important so if I take four glasses a day I have my uh of the amount of calcium that I need so that my bones don't get brittle um it also no sugar it has no sugar whatsoever it looks beautiful it looks very creamy it's not do you just like and it doesn't taste it doesn't taste like milk so you know don't don't go calling me and saying what the hell this is gross no and it's not gross but it certainly doesn't taste like milk is it it tastes slightly synthetic which it's not because it's really peas yeah p-e-a-s-p's do you um do you add anything it has Omega oh of course blueberries in it I put omega-3 um uh Little Seeds okay I put fruit absolutely but here I'm not at home yeah so I just take a uh you're just doing shots of it what I do is uh get a straw and yeah down there instead of uh instead of shots of tequila this one's doing shots of milk on set that's it that's it but it's really good stuff I mean it's good for you well look I mean if you're 90 going on 45 I am going to do whatever whatever you tell me to do so you won't I need you yeah oh yes no absolutely I have been taking notes trust me I've been watching you on set and I think you need to share with us the next book needs to be a longevity book okay okay can we get on that and I cannot wait for 80 for Brady can I give an exercise that is incredible people who who can't run stuff like that this is amazing I invented it and in fact my husband was so enthused about it he wrote an article for it for I think it was Vogue magazine years ago and that is conducting conducting music but you do not conduct this way you use your entire upper body and you will actually be out of let's see yeah you'll be out of breath [Music] you work so hard yeah you get out of breath and it's like all these muscles down your back whole upper body and your lungs oh yeah as you get out of breath it really works and he wrote a piece based on if you've ever wondered why so many conductors lived a long life particularly in the old days it's because they use their entire upper body all right so I mean you see the sweating you need to start this as like a chain of like a franchise across the country it's a one move over Jane Fonda yeah it works yeah well I think I ruined my knees with those exercises with Jane's exercises it didn't help and she's she's she as much as said yeah there were things that she really wasn't aware of back then they didn't yeah I feel like things of your knees there were things that really were hard on them yes I remember going from sit-ups to crunches because all of a sudden sit-ups weren't good for you now we're back to sit-ups now my husband's do my husband's a certified trainer and he's been talking about knees over toes there's something there's a program you're not supposed to do you weren't supposed to put your knees over your toes like if you do a lunge or something you're supposed to keep your knees in line with your ankle now you should because you're losing Mobility now there's a whole Mobility thing about like not if you don't put your knees over your toes you're not getting all the full movement so now there's a whole thing about like you know they always wanted you to stop like with like chest presses and stuff at a certain place now it's like no you know I put on Bruno I love I like Sinatra but I also love Bruno and he's got some insane salsa and to do to do that and you can bounce a little if you want to but this really works but be aware this is not conducting it's going to be full a whole thing and you'll find that you get tired so quickly it's like swimming in a way like swimming without water right exactly okay so okay milk conducting and water exercise keep moving water exercises pushing water down yeah really gives you pectorals well and I know you also like for memory stuff like you're all about if you don't use it you lose it right like memory I do a lot of memory uh little books and stuff you know those little cheap books yeah but what I do to it I write with my left hand I'm not I'm right-handed and I write pretty well now with my left hand well they say you're supposed to do things with your brain you don't usually use yeah so when you brush your teeth with your right hand every day now start to do with your left or like in the bathroom but then after you do it after you do it with your left do it with your right because you're not going to do well yeah yeah yeah that's true I actually just my my son is into fencing like sword stuff and they just changed him to a lefty oh wow and he's not a lefty well so he's always been kind of ambidextrous oh yeah he could use both and his coach saw with his footwork he was like is he left-handed I was like no he he writes with his right and he's like but his feet say otherwise and I was like huh so they changed him to a lefty and all of a sudden he's a little bit of Dyslexia thing too right like my kids like Brady had a baseball mitt for both hands right he couldn't figure out what in every different game he'd use a different mitt didn't know which hand to use right and also there's oh there's another thing that's terrific but you really have to do it in an empty room where it's just wood walk backwards oh that is hard to do oh okay but again that's like writing with your left hand it's making your brain do something that it's not a useful it sends neurons like different Pathways it opens up different Pathways absolutely we go walking the park right across the street from where we're filming our movie there's a giant park there and we go walking there now we have to walk backwards because you know I don't do it out but if I do it outside then I do it in a very clear space and I have someone holding my hand yeah yeah I mean it's very different I do it sometimes on the treadmill I've done it on the treadmill right which is but it's probably not working the brain in the same way no it's not I need to get out there you have to make the effort yeah oh re-time so thank you for being here I have I said earlier you didn't get to hear me say it in my intro but it has been a career highlight to work with you I mean top of the like the pickle on top of like the Cherry the pickle whatever I like pickles I like pickle on top it's a pickle on top of my chicken sandwich um it's been it's been absolutely blessed to have you and work with you you know I'm a big talker oh I can go on for well you can come back tomorrow you're here for you're here for another week right we'll do this every day we'll just this sounds great to me I will move this to the set and we'll chat with Rita every day thank you thank you guys for joining us here at what women binge can you do us a favor and give us an apple podcast review it helps a lot yeah while you're at it you can follow what women binge on Instagram and follow me on Instagram at Amanda WWB if you like listening to the podcast you would love seeing it so you can subscribe to my YouTube channel youtube.com Melissa joanhartofficial for full episodes bonus content and so much more what women binge is produced by laugh-a-gram Studios our wonderful theme song was written and produced by my cute husband Mark Wilkerson video production by Matt Geisler and Jay Hawley audio by Matt Lott production assistant Jen best and she is the best what women binge is distributed by podcast heat for more information visit podcasttheat.com do you have a question or a comment or a topic you want to suggest for the show well we are listening email us at wwbquestions gmail.com we'd love to hear from you

Channel: Melissa Joan Hart

Views: 8,361

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Id: NAwek6MiphM

Length: 71min 36sec (4296 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 05 2022