Rachel Zegler is slowly becoming one of eh most interesting young actresses to look out for. She impressed everyone with her incredible performance and singing abilities in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story. The actress recently starred in the Hunger Games prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
Director Francis Lawrence and the cast had a big responsibility in living up to the legacy of the franchise while also trying to add new layers to it. The crew wanted to put music into the narrative of the film but they were not sure whether audiences would buy something like that.
Rachel Zegler Was Not Sure Whether A Musical Number Would Fit in the Film
Rachel Zegler recently starred in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. The film is a prequel to the original film series and Zegler plays Lucy Baird, a member of a musical group. Director Francis Lawrence and Zegler wanted to use her powerful vocals and integrate some musical numbers into the narrative of the film.
However, one would find it weird to include songs in the middle of all the violence and carnage of the competitive nature of the Games that the series is known for. Hence, Zegler was unsure whether audiences would buy into this weird blending of contrasting elements together. She spoke about this during her appearance on Variety’s Actors on Actors segment saying,
“I was really nervous when I signed on, because I really wanted the fans to be able to subscribe to the fact that music fit into the plot somewhere. Coming from the world of musical theater, there’s a lot of difficulty in trying to sell that to an audience.
There’s a lot of people that don’t want to sit down and watch two and a half hours of singing sometimes, and you want to make sure that it feels as organic as possible for songs to fit into a plot like “The Hunger Games.” It doesn’t sound right when you say it out loud.”
The reviews of the film singled out Zegler’s performance in the film and also pointed out that the songs worked in tune with the narrative beat of the film where they were placed. She is one of the most gifted actresses among the younger lot of actresses and she is sure to have an impressive career ahead.
Francis Lawrence Instantly Knew Rachel Zegler Would Play Lucy Gray
The Hunger Games franchise director Francis Lawrence returned to The Hunger Games world with the latest prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Casting the role of Lucy Gray turned out to be fairly easy for the director as he had Rachel Zegler as his only contender for the role.
Speaking with Polygon, Lawrence claims that Zegler’s incredible acting chops along with her mesmerizing vocal ability immediately led him to select her for the part. He said,
“So she and I met, I think, for four hours or something the first time, and had a great chat about the book and about the character and about the music. I just knew she was the one right away.
I had high expectations, because I think she’s a great actor and a great singer, but the singing blew me away… To be able to hit that style and do it so effortlessly, and sing live every day, that was pretty mind-blowing.”
By the end of the film, it seems like Zegler’s Lucy Gray is killed by Tom Blyth’s Coriolanus. However, it is not definitive and left open-ended, which leaves room for her to appear in a sequel if it’s ever made in the future.
