American Masters Celebrates a Performing Great on PBS

EGOT winner Rita Moreno gets a touching, lively television tribute

There’s no questioning that Rita Moreno occupies a rarified position within the show business pantheon. After all, how many performers can boast a career spanning eight decades along with the coveted EGOT (the result of winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony)?

The Puerto Rican-born powerhouse, who’ll celebrate her 90th birthday in December, is the subject of a new American Masters documentary, Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It.

Utilizing a wealth of archival footage and candid new interviews from Moreno herself, the film —directed by Mariem Pérez Riera—also features fresh interviews with her closest friends and performers she’s influenced—an impressive list that includes Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, Gloria Estefan, Eva Longoria, Lin-Manuel Miranda and bona fide television legend Norman Lear.

During a recent session for the Television Critics Association summer press tour, Moreno explained that the only way she would agree to be the subject of a film about her life was if she stayed unflinchingly honest about her experiences.

“I knew that was very, very important for me, for my own self-respect,” she said. “I didn’t want on record for the rest of my life or the rest of my recognition as an actor to have it on record that I lied about something deliberately.”

As viewers will see, part of that honesty translates to Moreno’s appearance throughout, sometimes looking ultra-glamorous but occasionally makeup-free, looking like “a very old lady,” she joked.

“Part of my promise to myself that I would be honest and truthful is that if I happened to not have makeup on at the time, that’s the way I would film,” she said, admitting of those particular scenes that “I’m vain enough to not love that a whole lot.”

American Masters airs Tuesdays at 6 p.m. on WTVS and 9 p.m. on KCTS