How Rita Moreno Helped With West Side Story's Hairstyles
Rita Moreno Was a Huge Inspiration For West Side Story's Beauty Looks
2
When it came time to dream up the looks for the cast, Georgiou and her team of stylists didn't go at it alone — they also had help from Rita Moreno, one of the only returning cast members from the 1961 movie. In her new role, Moreno plays Valentina, the widow of drugstore owner Doc, but in the original, she was Anita. "She was one of our early points of reference," Kay Georgiou told POPSUGAR. "And she was very helpful in telling us what it was like then, in the '50s, and what the different looks were."
Moreno even took inspiration from her own family members when brainstorming what Valentina should look like. "When Moreno was talking about her look, she described a lot about how her mother would have looked," said Georgiou, though she pointed out the character isn't strictly based off Moreno's mom.