For the 2021 Power of Women issue, Variety spoke with several women in the entertainment industry who are using their voices to benefit worthy causes. For more, click here.

Rita Moreno may be turning 90 in December, but the actor dreads the thought of being typecast as a woman over a certain age.

“Why should I have to play a grandmother simply because I’m old? Can I be a lawyer? A scientist? So far, the answer is … not so much,” she says wistfully. “Hollywood suffers in a profound way from ageism.”

Moreno has made a career — one that spans seven decades of memorable stage and screen roles in “Singin’ in the Rain,” “The Electric Company,” “The Ritz” and “One Day at a Time” — out of defying expectations and breaking barriers. In 1961, she became the first, and still only, Hispanic woman to win an acting Academy Award, for her turn as Anita in “West Side Story.