Santa Bootcamp

Rita Moreno on Playing ‘Mischievous’ Belle in ‘Santa Bootcamp’

EGOT winner and Hollywood icon Rita Moreno makes her Lifetime — and Christmas — movie debut as bootcamp drill sergeant Belle in Santa Bootcamp.

Lifetime spoke with Moreno about her experience playing Belle, her favorite holiday memories, and what she’d get her famous West Side Story character, Anita, for Christmas.

This is your first Lifetime movie! What drew you to this project?

The idea of doing a Christmas movie really delighted me. I've never done one, and I felt very left out all these years. I got the invitation, read the script and said, ‘Absolutely, I'm in.’ It was very easy.

Your character, Belle, has some amazing one-liners.

I had something to do with some of that. I improvised sometimes and put in a little line here and there. It's not necessarily planned, but I think it helps her character. I saw her as a feisty character. She runs the bootcamp for a reason. She's very mischievous.

Since Belle runs a Santa bootcamp, what do you think are the qualities one needs to play Santa Claus?

You have to have a great sense of humor and a warm heart. I'm made for that stuff. I have a warm personality, I have a very overdeveloped sense of humor, and I'm really, really good with people, so doing a film like this was right up my alley. I hope I get asked to do another one next year. It was great fun.

In the movie, Emily says that as a child, she asked Santa for snow every Christmas. What did you wish for as a child?

I wanted a dollhouse. My mom and my stepfather, who was a lovely man, actually built the thing. There was a whole family of little figures. There was a real bathroom with a tub and a little toilet. There was a real kitchen with tiny pots and pans. My mother was a champion sewer, so she made outfits for all the little figures, and my stepfather got light bulbs from flashlights and made lights for the house. It was done with such love and I was so happy.

And I had a feeling they were doing something like that. The night before Christmas, the little dollhouse was all set up in another room of the apartment, and I tiptoed in there, saw the dollhouse and almost died of happiness. My mom caught me, and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I think I turned bright red with embarrassment. But it all turned out extremely well. She didn't tell my stepfather, thank goodness, so I did a little bit of acting the next morning. I played with that dollhouse for years.

What are you asking Santa for this year?

I want peace, harmony and love.

Do you have any holiday food traditions?

Not really, because I'm just hungry all the time. I love pork roast because that comes from my life in Puerto Rico. We used to have real feasts and the Puerto Rican Christmas is so fabulous. I have great memories of that.

What else was so special about Christmas in Puerto Rico?

In Puerto Rico, we used to have something called Parrandas. Parrandas is when a group of people get together — could be anywhere from two to 10 people — and we go from house to house and play instruments. Some of the instruments are really nothing more than metal cans and spoons. So you go to people's homes and make a lot of noise and sing and yell. And they have to let you in, so everyone is prepared with all kinds of goodies. It's so wonderful.

We also have lots of parades. We don't have Santa — we have the Three Kings. It is so beautiful to look at people dressed as the Three Kings. I just have super lovely memories of Christmas in Puerto Rico when I was a child.

One of your most well-known roles is Anita in West Side Story. If you had to get Anita a Christmas gift, what would you get her?

I would get Anita a Christmas dress. A very, very Christmassy dress with all kinds of Christmas decorations on it. I would probably make it for her. There would be lots of ruffles and little Christmas bows on it — everything that's Christmassy.