The brave actress who told Gene Kelly 'no' on set of Singin' in the Rain

Rita Moreno was excited to share the screen with Gene Kelly in Singin' In The Rain, but her minor role almost looked very different in the film.

Recalling her early acting career at the Sundance Film Festival this week, the 89-year-old revealed a disagreement she had with Kelly on set.

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According to Moreno, the screen star wanted her to cut her hair for her role as Zelda Zanders in the 1952 classic. Her reaction surprised him.

"I did something that is so Latina because I was the shyest person on earth, and I said no," said Moreno, via Page Six.

"And he really was taken aback because nobody ever said no to Gene Kelly, and I got scared to death having said that."

When Kelly asked why the young actress wouldn't change her appearance for the role, she was upfront.

She told the Hollywood star that cutting her hair would go against her Puerto Rican heritage, saying simply "we don't do that".

In the end she wasn't forced to cut her hair, instead donning a red wig and fair makeup for the part.

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As a Latina, she had often been typecast and pushed into stereotyped roles that reinforced harmful ideas about Latina women.

Moreno said it was "thrilling" to finally break free of those kinds of roles.

"I was playing a white part," she said, "and I was thrilled because I thought, 'OK, that's the end of those other parts where I have to talk with accents and all that kind of stuff. Not so."

The actress went on to star in many more classics, including film adaptations of West Side Story and The King and I, winning an Oscar for the former.

She recently starred in a documentary about her life titled Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It.

Big name stars like Gloria Estefan, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Morgan Freeman came together for the film to share their experiences with Moreno, who is widely beloved in the industry.