At only 17 years old, newcomer Rachel Zegler was cast as Maria in Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed remake of West Side Story. She was chosen from a reported 30,000 other hopefuls for the iconic role. Three years, one Golden Globe win, and a grueling awards season gauntlet later, Zegler has shot a role in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and is currently filming Disney’s live-action Snow White, where she plays the original Disney princess. In a new interview with ELLE, Zegler discusses her rapid rise to fame.
She also addresses the insidious question she was asked throughout the press campaign for West Side Story. Over and over again, Zegler and her female co-stars were questioned about sexual assault allegations concerning the film’s lead, Ansel Elgort, who played Maria’s love interest, Tony. In 2020, after filming had ended for West Side Story, Elgort was accused of sexual assault by someone who would have been 17 years old at the time of the alleged assault. Elgort denied the claims, alleging that he’d had a “consensual” relationship with said 17-year-old when he was 20. It’s clearly Elgort’s responsibility to answer to these allegations, but of course, the press decided to relentlessly question his female co-stars instead.
Looking back on it, Zegler is confused as to why she and her co-stars Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose were forced to answer these questions “even though the person in question was present.”
“It was a real gut punch, honestly,” said Zegler. “I reverted back to this brain space I was in [back in] June of 2020, when the accusation surfaced. We were in the middle of the first wave of lockdown, and there was nothing to do but doom-scroll. Those days were some of the worst mental health days I’ve ever had. I was sitting there having just turned 19, on the precipice of what was promised to be the biggest moment in my life, and was being held accountable [by the public] for accusations that not only had nothing to do with me but were made about a situation that was said to have occurred [five] years prior to when I had met and worked with this person. With no thought to the fact that I was also 17 when I met this person, 17 when I worked with them, 17 and 18 when I had to do love scenes.”
She continued, “[There is] inherent discomfort that comes with that realization that there are tons of people who think that you have to answer for the actions of an adult male who can speak for himself. It is so wildly disappointing at every turn, no matter how you slice it. No matter how many times I’ve tried to justify people’s concern when it comes to me in my brain, but then realizing that it comes from a place of me having to answer for that, and not them actually caring about whether or not I was okay, was really hurtful.”
Zegler added, “And also paying no mind when it came to the conversation between myself and these other incredible women in my cast, without any thought process to our experiences as women in the industry who constantly find ourselves in close encounters with men in power, and a very iconic woman in Hollywood [Moreno] who has spoken about her experience with sexual assault. In the grand scheme of things with this woman who has come forward with these allegations, I cannot imagine what she had to go through. If I’m sitting here thinking that those days were traumatizing for me, I don’t pretend to know. I could never know … I really don’t have anything to do with this conversation, and I’m looking forward to moving past it.”
Zegler’s interview is a powerful reminder of the entrenched sexism of Hollywood, not just in the production world, but in the media coverage of these cases as well. It’s a reminder that while many have already moved on from the Me Too movement, there is still so much that needs to change.
(via ELLE, image: 20th Century Studios)
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