Stacey Abrams on Tuesday’s “Tamron Hall”
EGOT WINNING ACTRESS RITA MORENO AND TRAILBLAZING POLITICIAN STACEY ABRAMS ON TODAY’S ‘TAMRON HALL’
Rita Moreno Receives A Surprise Message From Lin-Manuel Miranda And Reflects On Her Legendary Career, Her Tumultuous Relationship with Marlon Brando, and Having Her Best Year Yet at Age 89
Plus, Stacey Abrams On Her Powerful Policy Work, Her Unapologetic Ambition And Her Reaction To Losing The 2018 Georgia Gubernatorial Election
Rita Moreno on Tuesday’s “Tamron Hall”
WATCH CLIPS HERE
Ahead of Her 90th Birthday, Rita Moreno Looks Back at Her History-Making Career HERE
Rita Moreno Gets Real About Career Longevity & Overcoming Industry Hurdles HERE
Rita Moreno Details Filming Tumultuous Scene with Marlon Brando: “He Slapped Me So Hard” HERE
Lin-Manuel Miranda Thanks Rita Moreno for Blazing a Trail for Latinas in Hollywood HERE
Stacey Abrams on how she separates her work as a novelist and her work as an activist HERE
Stacey Abrams Didn’t Wallow in Self-Pity After Governor Loss, She Started Plotting HERE
Stacey Abrams on Success After “Get Out the Vote” Efforts: “I Am My Ancestors’ Wildest Dream” HERE
Stacey Abrams’ Life Mission Was Clearer After the Georgia Governor Defeat HERE
Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Award winning actress, Rita Moreno was a guest on Tuesday, June 15th edition of “Tamron Hall” to discuss her new documentary, “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It.” While reflecting on her legendary career, Moreno shared why this is her best year yet and opened up about how therapy helped her realize her self-worth. The 89-year old actress who is having a full-circle moment in her career as she films with the “West Side Story” remake after receiving an Oscar for her iconic portrayal of Anita in 1961, also discussed a pivotal moment in her relationship with the late Marlon Brando.
Tamron was later joined by a political leader, voting rights activist, and New York Times bestselling author Stacey Abrams to discuss how she’s paving the way for voting rights with her “Fair Fight Actions” group, her reaction to losing the 2018 Georgia Gubernatorial election, and how she separates her work as a novelist and her work as an activist.
Rita Moreno on having the best year of her life:
“For one thing, I’ve made it to 89. That’s the most joyful thing of all. I didn’t even picture 89. I’ve never had such an amazing year in my life and I really miss my mom and my husband because they would be so proud.”
Rita Moreno on how therapy helped her see her self-worth:
“The reason, really, that I agreed to do the documentary is because I wanted to show people the person behind all of those -- I have a lot of awards. I have awards coming out of you know where my behind. It’s not about that. Ultimately it's really not about that. It's about ability and about self-respect. It’s about pride and it took me a very, very, very, very, very long time to understand that I am a person of value. But I could not do that, in my case at least, without the help of a psychotherapist.”
Moreno recounting her experience of being slapped by a former boyfriend, the late Marlon Brando while filming “The Night of the Following Day”:
“He had to convince me to slap him because I’m one of those actresses that just doesn’t want to do that to other actors.” She continued, “He said ‘no you can’t fake it. You have to really slap me.’ I said ‘okay.’ He was NOT supposed to slap me back. this is what's fascinating. And when I slapped him, and I really gave it to him, and I'm really, I don't know how to do that well, it was hard. That son of --- slapped me back. I saw his hairline go back an inch, and I thought, ‘oh my goodness, I'm in trouble.’ Cameras going. He was furious and he slapped me so hard Tamron that I now know what they mean about seeing stars. I saw little sparkly things and it just unearthed all of these old wounds that he had everything to do with, and I went crazy.”
Moreno after being surprised by a video message from Lin-Manuel Miranda:
“It almost makes me want to cry. I'm not going to cry, but it means a lot. This man [Miranda] has single-handedly brought Puerto Rico to America. It's astonishing he brought Latino-ness to America. I couldn't do it. You know what’s interesting?I couldn’t do it, but he did it and I'm thrilled, and you know he produced, he's one of the producers of my documentary.”
Stacey Abrams on how she separates her work as a novelist and her work as an activist:
“Compartmentalize presumes that I separate them out and try to keep them isolated from one another. For me, it's more brand identity. When I started writing in 2000, 1999, it was my last year of law school and I was at the same time I was publishing my first romantic suspense novel,I was also publishing my treatise on the operational dissonance of the unrelated business income tax exemption. Nobody who wanted to read my romance novel wanted to read that treatise, and rarely would those who were going to read the treatise, would they acknowledge that they were going to read my romance novels so for me it was about just giving people safe space to either enjoy my musings on tax law, or my chemical physicist who was trying to save the world, but the through-line for me was that I wanted to tell stories about women, particularly women of color who were exciting and adventurous, who got to explore worlds that were not considered their, their province. And so my characters have been chemical physicists, ethnobotanists, grifters, professional poker players, lawyers, but for me, it is absolute of a piece that my romantic suspense and my political work that my activism, all come together because they're all part of who I am.”
Stacey Abrams on her reaction to losing the 2018 Georgia Gubernatorial election
“For about 10 days between Election Day on November 6, and my non-concession day on November 16, I like to say with great respect to my Jewish friends that I sat Shiva for about 10 days -- longer than traditional Shiva. I went through all the stages of grief. I spent a lot of time in angry. Anger was my favorite place -- I built a condo, had a timeshare there -- but my responsibility was to think about what else I needed to do so it was during that time where I let myself be angry and sad and remorseful, trying to figure out what else I could have done, but also being intentional and thoughtful about what needed to be done, I like to say that I added another stage to grief that I like to call plotting.”
Stacey Abrams on the importance of her work on voting rights:
“I think it is always important to leverage moments to make not only the points that you intend to make but to create an idea for what can be done better and not winning the governor's race in 2018, meant that I could amplify what happened to me, but make it a broader conversation. If I spent the months and weeks after that election bemoaning my fate, then I would likely be you know in the margins of history, what I've tried to do instead was make sure I did what I said I was going to do when I ran, which is my job was to lift up other voices to increase, increase the participation rates and expand who believed that they were part of the narrative of our state and of our nation. And if I'm doing my job well if I wasn't lying when I was running, then my job has been and will continue to be doing everything I can to make real our notion of democracy that every citizen has the right to be heard in the future of our country.”
Stacey Abrams on being unapologetic about her ambition:
“I grew up in Mississippi. I came of age in Georgia. I didn't meet a politician when I was growing up. My parents were super voters, they did not miss an election. And yet, I don't recall anyone ever knocking on our door, and I grew up in Georgia, working on campaigns but never believing that it was possible to even conceive of running for governor. Mayor was the highest job I'd ever imagined a black person could hold in the south. And so, my responsibility when I'm asked the question, what do I want. It's to be declarative, but not only to be declarative but then to explain how I'm going to get there because we cannot imagine our way into progress if people don't also give us the guardrails and the steps -- you're going to go outside, you're going to make mistakes you're going to do things people don't expect, you're going to lose elections that you run it, but if your ambition is strong enough, it may not achieve your dream, but it creates a dream, sparks a dream in someone else. And if I can do that, if I can create that moment for young Stacey, or young Tamron in Texas or Mississippi or in Georgia who suddenly believes more is possible, then I am my ancestors' wildest dream.”
Following are highlights for the remainder of the week. Please note: the lineup is subject to change.
Wednesday, June 16: An exclusive and empowering conversation with Emmy-winning actor Billy Porter on why he kept his HIV status a secret for 14 years and the end of his groundbreaking show “Pose.” (OAD: 5/19/21)
Thursday, June 17: An eye-opening conversation about the secret lives of teenagers - from hidden addictions to shocking alternative lifestyles. Plus, how parents can help keep them safe. (OAD: 5/12/21)
Friday, June 18: Award-winning actress and singer Zooey Deschanel and Grammy-winning singer Michael Bolton discuss their new show “The Celebrity Dating Game.” Plus, Laila Ali and hip hop artist Draze on supporting Black-owned businesses. And, Desus Nice and The Kid Mero, aka The Bodega Boys.
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