Rita Moreno Talks Making Her Lifetime Debut in 'Santa Bootcamp'

Rita Moreno is about to be your favorite star of the holiday season Lifetime.

The 90-year-old actress will lead an all-star cast in Santa Bootcamp, airing TONIGHT, November 19 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

“The idea of doing a Christmas movie really delighted me,” Rita shared about the project in a new interview. “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.”

Click inside to read more…

Rita also opened up about the one item she got for one Christmas as a child that meant the most to her – a dollhouse.

“I wanted a dollhouse. My mom and my stepfather, who was a lovely man, actually built the thing,” she recalled. “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.”

Rita added that she found out about it ahead of Christmas that year, and caught by her mom.

“I tiptoed in there, saw the dollhouse and almost died of happiness,” she says. “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.”

Santa Bootcamp centers on event planner Emily Strauss (Emily Kinney), who is asked by a business tycoon to plan his annual Christmas gala with one major request: She must hire the perfect Santa for the party. Emily finds herself at Santa Bootcamp where she meets Belle (Moreno), the bootcamp’s drill sergeant with a heart of gold. While at bootcamp, Emily rediscovers the magic of Christmas and, with a little help from Belle, romance.