COLLISION COURSE
In Spielberg’s film, as in the
original, a neighborhood
dance meant to foster unity
has the opposite effect.members of Hamilton, renowned for
dancing as “The Bullet” that kills the
founding father. Like Spielberg, she’s
been obsessed with West Side Story since
childhood: “I just absolutely loved the
music. Every time a number started,
I couldn’t help but get up and dance with
them. I would say that the music of West
Side Story has always lived inside of me.”
In the new ilm, DeBose swishes
through “America” in a golden hand-
made dress with scarlet rues beneath,
but the actor says she was haunted—and
daunted—by the violet swirls of the wom-
an who originated the part on screen. “I
grew up watching the lm and I just fell in
love with the woman in the purple dress,”
she says. “Even before I really understood
what the story was about, I knew that I
loved what she was doing. As I grew up,
I discovered who she was and her name
was Rita Moreno, and she looked like me.
She was one of the rst women onscreen
that actually had skin color that was close
to mine—especially in a lm made at that
time, where there weren’t many women
of color on the screen. That was very
inuential on me during my childhood.”
DeBose says that, as with Moreno,
Spielberg often asked for her views on
the way her character was depicted.
The actor recalls one pivotal conversa-
tion during auditions. “I’m Afro-Latina
and I said to him, ‘As a woman of color,
if you’re going to consider me for this
role, I would potentially be the dark-
est woman to play her onscreen,’ ” says
DeBose. “There’s also the reality that
it’s a period piece and there’s racial ten-
sion.” Having a biracial Anita intensi-
es that for the new lm. “In one way,
you’re not really sure if Anita’s African
American or if she’s Latina,” she says.
“I was like, ‘I think there’s really some-
thing to lean into, if that’s of value,’ and
he was intrigued by that observation. It
was fun from the jump to feel like I was
contributing to his new vision in a way.”
DeBose’s presence adds a new dimen-
sion to her character’s unshakable faith in
a country that has so often failed people
like her. “The way that I see Anita, she
is the consummate optimist,” she says.
“She believes in the American dream.
And she believes in her right as a woman
to pursue it. There’s something really
amazing about not only Anita, but wom-
en in general who constantly nd a way
to see the world—not with rose-colored
glasses—but with hope.” Qwith big beautiful brown eyes. I said, ‘Talk
to each other before you do the scene
again! Scare each other!’ ”
One person she tried to put at ease was
DeBose. Moreno gushed about the actor
who inherited her signature role of Anita.
“She is a ferocious dancer—way, way bet-
ter than I was,” she says.
DeBose was nominated for a Tony
Award for Summer: The Donna Summer
Musical and was one of the original castwas that she was one of the few Puerto
Ricans in the cast. “That’s what they
were trying to x and ameliorate, and I
think they have done an incredible job.”
Spielberg made Moreno an executive
producer on the ilm and urged her to
share her perspectives on that time and
place with the younger actors. For one
scene, in which the cops arrive to break
up a rumble, Moreno thought that the
dancers playing the Sharks didn’t quite
appreciate how much worse the situation
would be for the Puerto Rican boys. “I
was using bad language and all that, and
I said, ‘You are fucked! You are fucked if
they catch you! You don’t have a chance,’ ”
she says. “And they’re all looking at me
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