get out of town come on really i don't deserve to have all my dreams come true
of life congratulations on west side story it's just a masterpiece and thank you for making me
and the whole cinema cry last night oh thank you yay stephen you've obviously worked on some of
the most iconic movies of all time but as a fan of west side story if you could go back and tell your
younger self you'd be working with rita to bring this story to life for a whole new generation
what would he say get out of town come on really i don't deserve to have all my dreams come true
that's probably what i would say as a kid at looking forward to this
reality that i've just enjoyed for the last two years yeah you'd probably say rita who
not then i knew i knew you so well i knew her from i knew i knew rita from the king and i
and i recognized her and singing in the rain i saw her get out of the limo with that huge
kind of stall german german tails and so i i've been tracking this gal finally we're here i mean
what a dream rita west side story must mean the world to you what's been your experience working
on this compared to working on the previous one playing anita and receiving all of that success
and i know we don't have much time so i'll try to cut this down because i could talk forever
but let me just say that the most for me the most important aspect of being a part of this film
was knowing that uh that stephen and tony kushner had it in mind to uh write if you can call it that
write some of the wrongs that weren't attended to or addressed in the original film
which is not to say that there was anything wrong with that film but it was another time
and this is another time and they really struggled in every way you can imagine i was at a museum
yesterday with tony kushner where he did much of his research he did research i mean think of
that i don't know how many writers do that and you know that tony's also a political person so he was
extremely aware and clarified a lot of things in the original from the original film that weren't
too clear and nobody had to use dark makeup simply because we were puerto ricans i kept saying to my
makeup man uh i hate this makeup it streaks and i said because i'm lights for light under it and he
said what are you racist this is in the original movie yeah he said to me i climbed up i said what
what are you racist and i said i kept saying i'm puerto rican why can't i be my own color
crazy so you know things were addressed in this film that are sometimes not discernible but boy
they speak volumes to me and to hispanics around the world not just puerto ricans we wanted this
to be an authentic hispanic puerto rican latinx latino experience we that was very important to us
we wouldn't have proceeded unless every single shark girl and boy were were just were either from
you know latinx countries descended from countries rachel richard zegler who plays maria
is is her grandparents are colombian uh this was very very important to us to get it right
and authentically correct there wasn't a day when i was there rehearsing before we shot that these
kids both gangs as it were were not treated to some kind of lecture from somebody
sociological changes i mean there wasn't a day i was so impressed i thought oh my god they really
mean business well they weren't acting they were learning the history of san juan hill
and those barrios those 20 blocks those 20 bad blocks uh uh um um in in in 1956 which
we later became a lincoln center right you know i wake up to everything i know either
getting sold or wrecked or being taken over by people that i don't like you keep away from him
as long as you're in my house i'm a grown up now bernardo i'm gonna think for myself
what was the most particularly emotional or surreal moment whilst filming on set because
the scenes the dances the songs everything's just beautiful what really touched you
what really affected me as a director was the sequence
with anita and maria singing a boy like that a boy like that who killed your brother forget that
boy and find another that sequence was all done live that's not lip sync with a pre-recording
that was live most of the singing was live there for the four of the songs were completely live
and um and that was very very difficult it was difficult for ariana dubose who plays anita very
difficult for rachel zegler who played maria they had to do take after take after take and
they fell apart in with it inside and after every single take that was one of the most emotional
four days we spent on the entire production four days four days yeah oh really it's the
scene in the candy store when anita almost gets uh raped and i have to come in and save the day
and suddenly i'm not playing anita anymore not suddenly but i'm not anita i'm looking at her
and i'm playing the part of doc saying stop it stop it you people are animals
it was bizarre unreal truly it really is this is honestly my film of the year i wish i could speak
to you guys one day a huge congratulations such an honor talking to you both thank you
you