Who is Rachel Zegler? Meet the singer and actress playing Maria in the ‘West Side Story’ remake (2024)

FAQs

Who is Rachel Zegler? Meet the singer and actress playing Maria in the ‘West Side Story’ remake? ›

Rachel Zegler is a 20-year-old Colombian-American actor and singer-songwriter from New Jersey, who will star in Spielberg's upcoming remake of West Side Story and Disney's live-action take on Snow White. She will make her film debut in the Bernstein musical as Maria, opposite Baby Driver actor Ansel Elgort as Tony.

Rachel Zegler is a singer and songwriter, raised in New Jersey by her American father and Colombian mother. Having been one of 30,000 people to audition, she was selected to play the role of Maria in.

Actors Rachel Zegler and Josh Andrés Rivera met on set after being cast in the 2021 remake of West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg.

As the voice of Maria in 'West Side Story' and Eliza Doolittle in 'My Fair Lady', Marni Nixon should have been one of Hollywood's biggest stars. Instead, other actors got the credit and she became American cinema's 'most unsung singer', writes Alexandra Pollard.

Set in the 1950s, the Sharks are a Puerto Rican group that feuds with the Jets, an American gang, over control of the Upper West Side of New York City. The original 1961 cast includes Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris.

In 1961's West Side Story, the studio kept her work on the film (as the singing voice of Natalie Wood's Maria) a secret from Wood, and Nixon also dubbed Rita Moreno's singing in the film's "Tonight" quintet.

In the original West Side Story, the role of Maria was played by actress Natalie Wood. For 2021's West Side Story, the role went to newcomer Rachel Zegler, who beat out 30,000 other applicants when she was only 17 years old.

The adults, attempting to make peace, ask the teens to dance together as friends. The two gangs dance, but as a kind of non-violent suggestion of the rumble to come. During the dance, Maria and Tony meet, fall in love at first sight, and dance. Bernardo catches Maria and Tony in a kiss.

Actress Rachel Zegler (@rachelzegler), who is of Colombian descent, spoke candidly about white Latina privilege in Hollywood. The 22-year-old broke through with her starring role as Maria in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of “West Side Story” alongside Afro-Latina Ariana DeBose.

Her Casting Story for West Side Story Is So Cool

She ended up sending in a video of herself singing the classic song “I Feel Pretty” to WestSideStoryCastingSearch@gmail.com, booked the job, and—after wrapping up her school production of Shrek the Musical—started working with Spielberg.

Who actually sings in West Side Story? ›

Very little of the singing in the finished film and on the soundtrack album was contributed by the on-screen stars of the film; while George Chakiris did all of his own singing for the few solo lines of his character Bernardo, Jim Bryant entirely dubbed the singing role of Tony for Richard Beymer, and Rita Moreno's ...

In West Side Story, Maria is of Puerto Rican descent. In the 1961 film adaptation she was played by American actor Natalie Wood. Spielberg told Variety: “When we began this process a year ago, we announced that we would cast the roles of Maria, Anita, Bernardo, Chino and the Sharks with Latina and Latino actors.”

María is a fiercely independent 18-year-old girl who desires to have a life of her own away from the harshness of New York City's gentrification. She is shown to be slightly subservient to her brother, Bernardo, but upon meeting Tony aims to make her own decisions.

Classically trained, Ms. Nixon was throughout the 1950s and '60s the unseen — and usually uncredited — singing voice of the stars in a spate of celebrated Hollywood films. She dubbed Deborah Kerr in “The King and I,” Natalie Wood in “West Side Story” and Audrey Hepburn in “My Fair Lady,” among many others.

James Howard Bryant (June 2, 1929 – June 22, 2022) was an American singer, arranger and composer. He is best known for providing the singing voice of Tony (played onscreen by Richard Beymer) in the 1961 film musical West Side Story.

That said, West Side Story isn't based on a true story. Even though West Side Story has been associated with a modern and American telling of Romeo and Juliet for decades, Tony Kushner, who worked on the screenplay of the 2021 flick, thinks differently.

Rita Moreno explains how her Oscars look pays. homage to her late friend, Chita Rivera.

At the end of the film, Maria was likely spared to act as a substitute for the role of Prince Escalus, the prince of Verona who encourages the Montagues and Capulets to end their feud after it caused the pointless deaths of their progeny.