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Spielberg's 'West Side Story' is right here, and so is breakout star Rachel Zegler. Let's discover her ethnicity and if she really speaks Spanish.

For the first time in his occupation, legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg directed a musical. And no longer just any musical — he fulfilled his dream of directing a rendition of West Side Story.

The epic re-imagining of the cherished 1957 stage musical and 1961 film adaptation of the identical identify provides a recent and impressive take on the classic 1961 love story, and dare we say — he remastered a masterpiece.

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In her characteristic movie debut, Rachel Zegler takes on the iconic position of María, a component in the past assumed by means of the overdue Natalie Wood and Carol Lawrence. In addition to the Hollywood newcomer, the ensemble solid stars Ansel Elgort as Tony, Ariana DeBose as Anita, Davia Alvarez as Bernardo, Mike Faist as Riff, and Rita Moreno as Valentina (a recent take on the unique character Doc).

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Not simplest does the film succeed in its course and loyalty to the source subject matter, however it also flourishes in making an inclusive surroundings. Though most of the Puerto Rican characters' dialogue in the film is in Spanish, Steven Spielberg refused to include subtitles.

"If I subtitled the Spanish, I’d simply be doubling down on the English and giving English the power over the Spanish. This was not going to happen in this film, I needed to respect the language enough not to subtitle it," Steven told IGN.

With this in thoughts, this can be a for the reason that Steven unquestionably assembled a Latinx and bilingual solid, proper? Otherwise, it could negate the inclusive spirit he desired to succeed in. So, the question is: Does our new main lady Rachel Zegler speak Spanish? Keep studying to determine!

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Does Rachel Zegler speak Spanish?

If you are new to the Rachel Zegler fandom, one important truth you need to learn about her is that she is a bilingual queen who speaks each English and Spanish.

When Steven Spielberg issued the open casting call for the position of María in 2018, Rachel hired her Spanish-speaking skills in her audition. Because she was once a lovely standard 16-year-old girl attending highschool in New Jersey, she didn't have any professional representation at the time.

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So, she took it upon herself to report and ship a self-tape making a song "Me Siento Hermosa (I Feel Pretty)" from the 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story, and the rest, as they say, is history.

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In addition, Rachel additionally stocks videos on YouTube of herself making a song track covers, certainly one of which is a cover of "Sonya Alone," a ballad from the Broadway musical Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812. She effectively belts out the lyrics in English and Spanish, and viewers recommended her pronunciation of Spanish phrases.

One user asked if she spoke Spanish, and Rachel spoke back that she's "semi-fluent — I survived a week in Barcelona, and it was spoken around me for as long as I can remember. After a while, I guess I just kinda picked it up."

Since Rachel published she grew up hearing Spanish, many is also questioning: What is Rachel's ethnicity?

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Rachel is of Colombian and Polish descent.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Rachel's mother, Gina Zegler, is of Colombian heritage, and her father has Polish ancestry.

With her Colombian roots, Rachel is the first Latina to play María on-screen. Based on this revelation, Rachel instructed Time Magazine, "Authenticity is really important when it comes to West Side Story, and authenticity in Latin identity comes in so many different shapes and sizes and colors."

She persevered, "My parents were born here, but my abuelita was not — she came from Colombia in the ‘60s to have my mom. I think that that’s very well represented in this movie — that there are so many different ways to be Latinx and so many versions that we don’t talk about in mainstream media."

West Side Story is now enjoying exclusively in theaters.

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