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Last week we celebrated Rita Moreno turning 93 years young by covering the Mardi Gras-themed party she threw on the “Fat Saturday” before her December 11 birthday, which fell on a Wednesday this year. So what did Ms. Moreno do on the actual day of? Appear on Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Wiser Than Me podcast! And what did the ladies talk about? How Rita is a “lucky little bitch,” (her words, not mine) who manages to eat whatever she wants without gaining weight and has similarly had nary a single skin cancer scare despite having been a serious suntanner earlier in life. “I was just born with fantastic genes,” she told Julia. Way to rub it in, Rita!! (I was going to say “way to rub salt in the wound,” but it just reminded me of more food she can probably eat without consequence.) Here’s more on this unfathomably fabulous creature and her fantastic genes:
“I try not to watch what I eat. I eat pretty much what I like. I am what my doctor calls ‘pre-diabetic,’ so I do have to be careful about sweets and stuff like that, but I’ve been that for years and I’m still good,” Moreno told Julia Louis-Dreyfus on the Dec. 11 episode of the Seinfeld alum’s Lemonada Media podcast, Wiser Than Me.
“So to hell with it,” Louis-Dreyfus replied.
“I’m just a lucky little bitch,” Moreno said, prompting the Veep alum to reply, “You really are.”
“I was just born with fantastic genes. I have really good skin for someone who is, you know, 93 today,” Moreno shared.
When Louis-Dreyfus brought up Moreno’s history of tanning, saying “I read you used to sit out in the sun and become like a piece of bacon…you haven’t had skin cancer?”
“Never, never, never,” Moreno said. “Isn’t that amazing? My mom did, she had little skin cancer things, but I never had a problem with my skin. It doesn’t mean I don’t have wrinkles.”
The accomplished dancer, who won an Academy Award for her work in the 1961 musical West Side Story, said these days, “I don’t work out at all.”
“My knees are shot to pieces from all the dancing. I mean, West Side Story,” she explained, adding that “the thing that really killed my knees was playing Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.”
“I loved doing that show,” the actress previously told PEOPLE about the London production, which she starred in from September 1996 to October 1996. “I love every minute of it.” However, as she told Louis-Dreyfus, playing the fading movie star took a painful toll on her body.
“You know how she makes these incredible entrances down the steps? Well, in order to come down steps, you have to go up steps backstage, right? And that almost killed me,” Moreno shared. “That really ruined my knees. It’s ruined many knees.”
“So I don’t do things that call for knee work — and that’s almost everything,” she explained, saying that to stay fit, she walks her dog. “I can’t bend them very much,” Moreno said. “When and if I am asked to accept a wonderful award — which happens more now that I’m older and they’re saying, ‘Quick, before she kicks the bucket, let’s give her this award’ … I always have to say, ‘Am I going to go up steps to the stage to accept this award? Because, if so, then I really need some help.’”
When Louis-Dreyfus pointed out that she saw Moreno accept an award without help, the Broadway icon replied, “like, 40 men came over and practically lifted me.”
Rita is such a gifted storyteller and conversationalist. I just love her. Sure, I’m dripping with hunger, I mean envy — or let’s face it, all of the seven deadly sins — over her winning the genetic lottery when it comes to eating. And sunbathing, which she really is super lucky never led to skin cancer. My grandmother was also of the generation who loved to sit out and cook in the sun, and she later had melanoma on her leg that my aunt described as “the size of a small country.” So please wear sunscreen! Only Rita Moreno could be so lucky as to beat those odds! But I guess the great leveler in life is our knees taking us down. Rita had me in stitches with the line, “Well, in order to come down steps, you have to go up steps backstage…” Like they say, what goes down must first go up, lol. I may not have just turned 93, but I too try to avoid things that call for knee work, and would greatly appreciate 40 men coming over to lift me up to my morning train each day.
Happy Birthday to Rita once again, you lucky little bitch.
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