Why Rita Moreno will 'never forgive' herself for her Oscar acceptance speech
Rita Moreno may have won her Oscar over 50 years ago, but that doesn’t mean the memories of the night still don’t make her emotional.
Moreno then cringes at her own acceptance speech, which is a brief, “I can’t believe it. Good lord. I leave you with that.”
“I’ll never forgive myself for this. I’ve been trying to make up for it since then with long acceptance speeches,” she jokes about her very concise response to the win.
Moreno is a part of Oscar history for being both the first Latina actress to win the award and also going on to be one of only 12 competitive EGOT winners (people who’ve won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award). She hasn’t tired of the honor, however.
“It’s gone past that at the moment because of SAG Awards Lifetime achievement and also the Kennedy Center Honors, so now I’m a SKEGOT,” she jokes. “I got to tell you — it means a lot, it feels really, really good. I am not casual or bored with something like that. I think it’s wonderful and I’m glad it happened to a Puerto Rican.”
