Now that West Side Story is behind her, actress Rachel Zegler is reevaluating the overall experience she had speaking to the press about the film – and she’s describing it as “wildly disappointing.”
During a recent interview with Elle magazine, Zegler explained how overwhelmed she felt when reporters asked her questions about the sexual assault accusations levied against her co-star Ansel Elgort. Elgort was accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in 2014, allegations he denies.
“[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,” Zegler told Elle. “It was a real gut punch, honestly.”
During the press tour for West Side Story, Zegler answered questions as diplomatically as possible. When asked about the Elgort accusations by The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year, she said, “You just hope that the people involved are OK, that they are asked in a respectful manner and that they are given the opportunity to answer for themselves.”
Looking back now, however, Zegler doesn’t understand why anyone was asking her to comment on someone else’s behavior in the first place. “It is so wildly disappointing at every turn, no matter how you slice it,” Zegler said. “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 also didn’t understand why reporters didn’t take other things under consideration before bringing up the subject. “[They paid] 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 [Rita Moreno] who has spoken about her experience with sexual assault,” she said.
The 20-year-old star will next be seen in the sequel Shazam: Fury of the Gods and in Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White.