West Side Story Rachel Zeglers First Day Was Marías Kiss With Tony

West Side Story: Rachel Zegler’s First Day Was María’s Kiss With Tony

Rachel Zegler speaks about her daunting first day on the set of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, which involved filming María’s kiss with Tony.

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West Side Story Rachel Zeglers First Day Was Marías Kiss With Tony

Newcomer Rachel Zegler’s first day on Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake involved kissing Ansel Elgort’s Tony character twice. Zegler, who plays María in the lavish production, has some big shoes to fill, as the character was originally played by multi-Oscar-nominee Natalie Wood in the 1961 film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Though Spielberg’s version has just been released, it’s already been singled out as an Oscar contender.

Originally created for the stage by Arthur Laurents, Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein, West Side Story tells the tale of two rival gangs in Manhattan’s Upper West Side during the 1950s. The Jets were comprised of white members, while the Sharks were Puerto Rican. The issue of turf is a big one for the rivals, but things become even more threatening when former Jets member Tony falls in love with María, the sister of the current Sharks leader, Bernardo. The musical was an instant hit upon its initial release in 1957, and four years later, it was adapted into a feature film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins that went on to win an astounding 10 Oscars from 11 nominations.

After the resounding success of the stage production and film adaptation, West Side Story had rightly earned its place as one of the greatest musicals of all time. Because of that, the idea of remaking the film is a daunting one, with very few filmmakers accomplished enough to even consider taking it on. Fortunately, Spielberg is exactly the sort of filmmaker who can handle such a production, but that doesn’t mean that everyone involved is as instantly comfortable. While speaking to Variety at the West Side Story premiere, Rachel Zegler explained just what her first day on set as Maria was like:

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It was a rain schedule, I wasn’t supposed to go for two more days and then I had to kiss Ansel twice, and I had to dance with him under the bleachers and I was so nervous.

Zegler makes her feature-film debut in West Side Story, having been selected to play María from the 30,000 actors who auditioned for the coveted role. Prior to this, the 20-year-old had only one television appearance on her acting resume. Regardless of her relative inexperience, however, Zegler will appear in the upcoming Shazam! Fury of the Gods, as well as play Snow White in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

With West Side Story’s reviews filled with nearly unanimous praise, it does look as though this could be the film that truly gets audiences back in theatres. Previous hopes for injecting life back into theatres since the Covid pandemic took hold haven’t quite panned out, but Spielberg always seems to have a knack for creating the sort of immersive events that really do need to be seen on the big screen. And despite Zegler’s initial nervousness over her initial moments on set, this first feature could end up being the one that makes her a star – particularly when Oscar honours are handed out.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/west-side-story-maria-tony-kiss-rachel-zegler/

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