Every now and then an actress or actor comes along that seems to effortlessly slip into the cultural zeitgeist. Think Timothée Chalamet a few years back, or Jennifer Lawrence around the time The Hunger Games first came out. The latest star to reach those vaunted levels of fame is actress and singer Rachel Zegler, who’s only 22 years old and already has a Golden Globe win for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical under her belt.
With upcoming parts in the Snow White live-action remake and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, her star is only going to burn brighter and brighter. Here are some of her best performances in both television and film. Before we get into that, let’s take a look at just how she went from unknown to the next big thing seemingly overnight.
Who is Rachel Zegler and why is she famous?
Before she burst on the scene in West Side Story, Zegler was just another high school student in New Jersey. She started acting at age 12 in a local productions of Fiddler on the Roof, and then tried to reach broadway at 14 when she auditioned for Rock of Ages.
She came from humble beginnings: her father was a construction worker, and she sometimes worked as a wedding singer.
She played María in a high school production of West Side Story when she was 16, a part that no doubt prepared her for the feature role. She was chosen from more than 30,000 applicants after responding to a casting call for Latin actors.
After she got the role, she took to Instagram and said: “When I played María 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 María 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.”
The rest is history. Let’s take a look at her best roles and appearances.
West Side Story
Of course we have to include the role that made her famous and won her a Golden Globe. Zegler plays María, a young Puerto Rican teenager who falls in love with a member of a rival gang. The updated story heightens the dramatic racial tension and dives into the themes of gentrification and forbidden love.
In an interview with Buzzfeed, Zegler revealed that she really connected with the character of Maria and that helped her when she was playing the role.
“María and I are very similar. We were both 18 at the time. She’s only been in New York for four or five months. I was living in New York for the first time; I had my mom with me, the same way that she had Bernardo with her. And she’s just navigating her friendships and relationships, and how she feels about becoming an adult and coming of age.
Variety said she gives María “a touch of fierceness and a boldly chiseled stare of longing.” Basically, she crushes it and it’s easy to see why.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
We know what you’re thinking. Shazam?! Didn’t the movie tank? It did. Wasn’t it terrible? Not according to its 86% Rotten Tomatoes audience score (critics score is admittedly much, much lower). Whether it was due to superhero fatigue, the fact that James Gunn was now head of the DCEU studio and this was from the old guard or simply because no one cares about Shazam!, this is still a must-see for all the Zegler completionists out there.
Truth is, despite the negative reviews for the movie as a whole, many critics praised her performance in the movie and highlighted her natural ability to deliver a funny line with comedic timing. She was also recognized for her general screen presence in the film, also known as that hard-to-pinpoint quality called star power.
In the movie, she plays a rebellious but loyal teen who doesn’t always think things through, and she plays it convincingly. It’s so easy to phone in a performance in a movie like that, but Zegler refreshingly gives it her all. Dare we say, she’s the best thing about the movie. We dare!
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Admittedly, we don’t have much to go on just yet besides the trailers, but man does this one look good. Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird, a tribute from District 12. She falls in love with Coriolanus White, who’s played by Tom Blyth. White, is of course President Snow from the original movies, where he’s played by Donald Sutherland.
What we can see is that Zegler shows a lot of range in this one. There are moments where she’s disheveled and fighting for her life, and others where she’s vulnerable but also on edge and intelligent. There’s a tender, crying scene where Snow wipes tears from her eyes, and at one point we even see her playing a guitar and singing. It would be a shame to waste her incredible talent, so we’re glad they put that in.
Critical response to the movie is overwhelmingly good. Erik Davis of Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango said that Zegler “truly shines in this. Her character Lucy Gray is very different from Katniss, and the tense, twisty dynamics between Lucy and Tom Blyth’s Coriolanus are a treat to watch.”
The Cinematic Reel’s David Gonzalez said that “Rachel Zegler astounds with her stunning voice.” Things are shaping up beautifully for this one.
Snow White
Of course, we have to talk about Snow White. All we’ve had to go by so far is the controversy. Recently, Disney announced they were delaying the movie until 2025, a full year after it was originally slated to be released.
First, the Daily Mail said that there weren’t even going to be dwarves in the movie, and instead the princess would be have “politically-correct companions.” This caused an uproar, as did the casting of Zegler as a Hispanic woman in a so-called “white” role.
In an attempt to quell the fires, Disney released the above image that shows Zegler in costume with her seven actual dwarves around her in a circle. The truth is that this is one of Disney’s biggest movies, and if it fails it will endanger the release of future live-action remakes and potential Snow White sequels.
While we haven’t seen Zegler in action quite yet, this is sure to be a marquee role for the actress, and one she’s obviously well suited to play. We don’t have a release date for a trailer just yet, but we’ll be anxiously waiting.
Jimmy Kimmel Live appearances
Zegler has quite a few late night appearances, but her stint on Kimmel is one of her best. She shows off her incredible charm and grace, while seeming incredibly approachable and humble. It’s not an easy combination to pull off, but Zegler really shines in front of a camera.
She reveals more about her gig as a wedding singer (she did funeral and masses as well) and how she feels about the upcoming Snow White movie (or how she did at the time).