“I was having a full-fledged panic attack.”
Naturally, Moreno wanted to meet her successor but she was MIA.
“I was having a full-fledged panic attack,” DeBose explained.
Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno at the ‘West Side Story’ premiere.Charley Gallay/Getty Images
“I hid underneath the bleachers for like 20 minutes until I could get myself together.”
After DeBose collected herself, Moreno invited her to lunch.
“She calmed me down and gave me the space to feel my feelings.
Ariana DeBose as Anita in 2021’s ‘West Side Story’.Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios
She was like, ‘It’s OK. You got the part.
There’s a reason for that.'”
Zegler and Moreno also had a surreal introduction.
The Hollywood legend told Zegler her “voice is so lovely, I shit a brick!”
“When I thought of Anita, I thought of Rita Moreno, Chita Rivera,” DeBose said.
Because otherwise, I didn’t think there was anything to be added [to the role].
It had been done, and beautifully so."
“Ariana needed to bring her entire existence into this character,” the director toldThe Hollywood Reporter.
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