AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Rachel Zegler’s baptism by fire

By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer

Nothing can really prepare a person to go from New Jersey high school student to the lead in a Steven Spielberg adaption of “West Side Story,” but if anyone was up to the task it was Rachel Zegler. The 20-year-old triple threat was supposed to have her breakout moment as Maria last December, but the pandemic delayed the release of the film a year. In the interim, she was cast in and filmed the “Shazam” sequel, got the role of Snow White in a live action film opposite Gal Gadot, and got to do her first ever red carpet appearances.