The Golden Age icons who shaped Rachel Zegler: “There was no spectacle back then”
Given who her influences are, it’s no wonder that Rachel Zegler has become a major musical star.
There’s no bigger first role that any actor could ask for than the leading part in a new Steven Spielberg movie, especially one that happened to be a remake of one of the most beloved ‘Best Picture’ winners of all time. The role of Maria in West Side Story is one that comes with a great deal of history, but it’s a part that Rachel Zegler knocked out of the park with her tremendous performance.
West Side Story wasn’t just a shot-for-shot recreation of the 1961 classic, but an inventive reimagining that added in a significant portion of new material thanks to playwright Tony Kushner, who had previously worked with Spielberg on Lincoln. One of the biggest changes from the original text was the characterisation of Maria, where the original film had whitewashed the part with Natalie Wood in the role, Zegler’s casting was a more appropriate representation.
She was offered further opportunities in big-budget films like Snow White and The Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbird and Snakes, but she has done some of her best work on stage in other musical roles, including Romeo & Juliet on Broadway and Evita on the West End. Given her strength as a musical performer, it makes sense that Zegler would be enamoured with the Golden Age productions that built the foundation of Hollywood’s obsession with musicals.
“There’s such an emphasis on performance in those movies,” she explained, “There was no spectacle back then. When it was stripped down to a two-camera job and you really only have Gregory Peck giving his all on camera. It really just shows you how much of your soul an actor had to wear on their sleeve back then.”
Among the stars that Zegler cited as inspiration was Audrey Hepburn, who famously had the lead role in the ‘Best Picture’-winning musical My Fair Lady, even though Julie Andrews had done the part on Broadway, and while it might have been one of Hepburn’s defining parts, Zegler was instead inspired by Charade, an underrated adventure comedy that she co-starred in alongside Cary Grant.
“She’s a little kooky, she’s a little ditzy, but also very grounded and sure of herself, and has the self-preservation motivation for most of the film, which is just her staying alive,” Zegler said.
The unique relationship between the characters of Grant and Hepburn is something that Zegler said was highly influential on her performance in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. In the prequel film, her character Lucy Gray Baird forms an unusual partnership with Coriolanus ‘Coryo’ Snow, played by Tom Blyth, who would eventually become the villain portrayed by Donald Sutherland in the original four films. She explained the connect, “The way that she’s able to flip-flop and play the game and Coriolanus doesn’t even realise that he’s being played, and the audience doesn’t either. So she plays a game of dramatic irony with both”.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes seemed to confirm that Zegler was a star, as it proved that the franchise was still viable, even if Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson were not involved, and although her next role hasn’t been slated as of yet, it wouldn’t be surprising if she took a few more pointers from Hepburn’s other films going forward.
