Qhen Rachel Zegler – in her twenties, from Clifton, New Jersey – adds lawyers, agents and the team of press officers to the list of usual thanks for a post-adolescent (mom, dad, sister, childhood friends), you understand that it is there to stay. Zegler was only seventeen years old when he sent a video (“Bad”) in which he sang I feel pretty. Recipient of the casting office of West Side Story, the musical that Steven Spielberg he directed and will be released in American cinemas in early December and in Italy on the 23rd.
Rachel Zegler in West Side Story
Inspired by the musical of the same name by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, the remake of the 1961 adaptation directed by Robert Wise, was written by Tony Kushner, the playwright of Angels in America and author of the screenplays for Munich and Lincoln, films directed by Spielberg. Rachel Zegler in West Side Story plays Maria, Ansel Elgort is Tony, the protagonists of the updated 1950s New York version of Romeo and Juliet: Maria and Tony belong to rival gangs and ethnic groups, Puerto Ricans and Anglo-Saxons, considered incompatible.
Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer in the 1961 film “West Side Story” (Photo by Donaldson Collection / Getty Images)
The 1961 film with Natalie Wood and Richard Beymer, ten Oscars, is now part of the myth. When did she realize she was entering sacred territory?
In 2018, after many auditions, there was finally a meeting with Steven Spielberg. I was not the only one, there were still other candidates in the running. I remember with disbelief how calm I was, and only then did I think that maybe I could do it. If meeting one of the greatest directors in the world had scared the shit out of me, it might not have worked. But it didn’t happen that way. Steven arrived with his dog Leroy and his wife. He was there with his family and that made me feel good. It wasn’t like I was going to have the biggest audition of my life.
Spielberg said of her: “Rachel Zegler was born to do what she’s doing.” She knew from an early age that she wanted not only to be an actress, but to work in musicals. How come? And her family encouraged her?
Sometimes I wonder if they really encouraged me or if they were just nice to me, not wanting to destroy my dreams: “Oh, you want to work on Broadway,” they would tell me. “Ok, what’s the problem?” At least once a year we all went together to see a musical, I saw Beauty and the Beast when I was four and I remember it like it was yesterday. Like all children, I dreamed of being an astronaut or working in fashion, but they were fleeting desires. The only one that never dissolved was to get on stage and entertain the audience. I wanted to make strangers feel that for an hour and a half they could leave all their problems behind. And if Steven says this is my calling, I think we can trust his opinion.
His life has already changed dramatically. After West Side Story he turned Shazam 2 and she was away from home alone for months for the first time.
I do what I love and these are natural changes for someone my age. But without tearing. My parents and sister are very close to me right now and my best friends are still my best friends. And then I have incredible collaborators, my team, my agents and my lawyers: they reassure me and help me keep my feet on the ground. Even just reminding me to take a long breath every now and then. I am beginning to be recognized on the street: this is new and I have to get used to it.
West Side Story doesn’t he risk sounding a little vintage to his peers?
The 1961 musical and film are pop culture pieces that will live on forever. Our film is important for those who live today in the society in which I also find myself: it talks about political choices, about migrants, about the relationship between new Americans and whites, they are crucial issues in our society. And I believe that if West Side Story has always resonated with power in my country, this time the research work that Tony Kushner did to make the New York of 1957 and understand the reasons for the conflicts that ran through it, will make the film incredibly current. In the Shakespearean text the Capulets and the Montagues were enemies for so long that they no longer even remember what the reasons were. The Sharks and the Jets, on the other hand, fight for a reason, but in the end they find that they share much more than they imagine.
Ariana DeBose as Anita in 20th Century Studios’ WEST SIDE STORY.
Spielberg encouraged her to put her personal coming-of-age novel into history. What does he have in common with Mary?
On the first day of rehearsals, we had a conversation about this. Steven decided that Maria must be eighteen and I was only two weeks away from my birthday at the time. He told me: “I want you to remember how nervous you feel and how you feel uncertain about the future, because we will need it.” And it was so. On the first day of shooting we filmed the meeting between Maria and Tony: I was terrified. It scared me to be on set, to be watched by the crew and to be directed by Spielberg. Steven said to me, “You’re shivering, that’s what we have to show. The anxiety that a teen ager feels when she throws herself into the fray of life ».
In the first film, most of the actors, especially the protagonists, were white playing Latins. The choices that Spielberg made are also the consequence of the changes underway that push towards a greater representation of minorities. Do you feel you are part of this moment?
I feel I am part of the path that started in the right direction, but the industry still has a long way to go. We Latins have been around for a long time and are perfectly capable of representing ourselves and our culture. And it’s great that Hollywood has noticed, that authentic stories can be told by real people.
Rita Moreno who played Anita in the 1961 film, the role for which she won the Oscar is, at the age of ninety, also in this film. What did he tell you about that experience?
Rita is aware of how lucky she was given the time she started working. In 1952 she had had a role in Singing in the Rain, just a few lines and maybe no one then realized she was Latina, she was just a girl with red hair, but that little role allowed her to get started. “I was inside,” he told me. Time wrote about her, more films came. His advice for me was: “It is important to be able to seize opportunities, to say no when you have to say no, to establish a boundary between private and professional life, but to know with certainty when you have to say yes”. Rita knows better than anyone what it means to be a young woman in this industry and above all a young Latina.
Rachel Zegler is Maria in 20th Century Studios’ WEST SIDE STORY.
Natalie Wood is also part of the myth, thanks to that film, but above all for the tragic end of her life. Now she is experiencing all the joys, but do you also think about the traps?
It is terrifying to see that this lifestyle and this world that can offer so many privileges also lead to potential tragedies. And many don’t think about it. But what has changed since the time of Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe is that we now talk much more than before about the problems and frailties of those who are exposed. Artists who shared a tragic end had their own demons, but perhaps they never told anyone about them. We understood this later and we said to ourselves that if they had someone to lean on they would be saved.
Rachel Zegler, who are the people to talk to for you?
Those who know me well and have known me for a long time, and then I’m in therapy and I’m not ashamed. It would not have been easily confessed once. These last few years have been intense and understanding what my life has become is not a foregone conclusion. The world is my oyster and the oyster is scary. But I understand that I can only do what I can and I hope the world is more willing than ever to admit that we all do what we can.
Kushner said of the film: “Racism and poverty are the antithesis of democracy.” It will be a musical, but also a political film?
In 1957, many Upper West Side New Yorkers were kicked out of their homes because Lincoln Center was to be built. At the heart of the conflict between the Jets and the Sharks is this common enemy: the government. Who didn’t care whether you were a migrant or a poor man. You were still thrown out anyway. But what Kushner tells us is that that period and this period are not all that different. This makes the story eternal, as eternal is the love between Tony and Maria.
Do you believe in the possibility of cinema to change the world?
Of course, I believe in the power that movies have to spark comparisons. We are open to all interpretations when we make a film, someone can be happy just to contemplate the magnificent costumes and listen to the music, others will see the political aspect, the conflict. I love cinema and can’t wait to see West Side Story in a theater. Gustavo Dudamel who directs the philharmonic must be heard with the system it deserves.
And then Snow White awaits her …
The idea that we will have one Latin Snow White is very exciting for me. There is something beautiful and new on the horizon.
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