Rita Moreno: ‘Acting is good for my memory’

Rita Moreno wants to continue acting into her 90s, because learning lines helps to keep her mind sharp.
After the 85-year-old wrapped filming the 13-episode remake of Normal Lear’s TV series One Day at a Time, she headed back out on the road following a week-long break to tour her cabaret show and give lectures.
And the West Side Story star insists she has no plans of slowing down, because she can see how acting has helped her memory.
“I found that I stopped searching for words,” she tells People magazine. “What amazes me is what they say is absolutely true, even more in a way than exercise, is engaging your brain. I’m telling you, when I do my cabaret act or do my lectures, people are just standing up in wonder saying, ‘Wow! How do you do that?’ And I say, ‘Engagement!'”
Rita also explains she wanted to appear in the new One Day at a Time show, about a recently separated, former military mum raising her teenage son and daughter with the help of her own mother and a friendly building manager, because it centres on a Latin family.
“(I) loved the fact that we are a Cubana family,” she adds. “The Latin part of it doesn’t leave anybody out,” she continues. “We happen to be a Cuban family, but it doesn’t leave anybody out because they aren’t also Hispanic. The balance is absolutely brilliant.”
And she was thrilled she was able to work with Lear, who developed the original series and will serve as an executive producer on the remake.
“He’s a remarkable man,” she says.
The series premiered on streaming service Netflix on Friday (06Jan17).