NJ Girl To Be in Spielberg’s New Movie
A Jersey Girl's headed to the big screen for Steven Spielberg's latest project.
According to NJ.com, 17 year old, Rachel Zegler, of Clifton, was announced yesterday, as the new star of Spielberg’s much talked about “West Side Story” reboot. She'll play Maria.
She beat out more than 30,000 hopefuls from all over the world. She'll start filming the movie this summer. No release date has been set yet.
She's a lucky girl. She'll get to star opposite cutie, Ansel Algort, who has been picked to play her love interest, Tony.
Rachel said on her Instagram, “When I played Maria on stage a few summers ago, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the role again in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. As a Colombian-American woman growing up in this day and age, strong roles like Maria are so important. To be able to bring that role to life— a role that means so much to the hispanic community— is so humbling. i hope you’re all as excited as i am.”
The first time she played Maria in West Side Story was at Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood, NJ back in 2017.