Rita Moreno is a Hollywood legend. She is one of the select group of artists who have achieved EGOT status, winning an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony. And, at 92 years old, she is still working on new movies and TV shows.
Some of her most recent roles include Maura in the road trip comedy “80 for Brady,” in which she starred alongside Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Sally Field. She also played Toretto’s grandma (Abuelita Toretto) in the tenth installment of the ‘Fast and Furious’ franchise, “Fast X.”
But, audiences will watch her in the comedy horror film “The Prank,” which she is currently promoting and in which she portrays a physics teacher who is falsely accused by two students of murder. Here’s all you need to know about the film.
‘The Prank’ will premiere in theaters in March
While “The Prank” had its premiere at South by Southwest in 2022, it will finally land in theaters on March 15 in the United States, distributed by Iconic Events. Maureen Bharoocha, known for movies such as Fatal Flip and Golden Arms, directs the movie from a script by Rebecca Flinn-White and Zak White.
The movie follows Ben (Connor Kalopsis), a senior student who needs to get good grades to earn a scholarship as his mother can’t afford his college education. However, when Mrs. Wheeler (Moreno) threatens to fail the entire class after someone cheated on a midterm exam, he and his best friend Tanner (Ramona Young) falsely accuse Mrs. Wheeler of murdering a missing student.
The rest of the cast includes Keith David, Kate Flannery, Meredith Salenger, Jonathan Kimmel, Nathan Janak, Betsy Sodaro, and Romel De Silva. In an appearance on The View, Moreno explained that she based her performance on some of her past co-stars.
“I just thought, how am I going to play this terrible person? And I thought of all the women in my life — particularly in show business — who’d really been awful to me,” she told the panelists of the show.
With only 22 reviews, “The Prank” currently holds a 41% on Rotten Tomatoes. The majority of the critics took issue with the script, but many praise Moreno’s performance, as well as the rest of the cast.
