West Side Story was never meant to represent Puerto Rican communities. Its original creators Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, and Arthur Laurents admitted they set out to tell a Romeo and Juliet story based in New York City. It was only too convenient that “the Puerto Rican thing,” as Bernstein put it, “had just begun to explode,” and thus provided a community on which the creators could prop their 1957 Broadway musical. White actors were cast in two of the main Puerto Rican roles: George Chakiris as Bernardo and Natalie Wood as Maria.
It wasn’t until the 1980 Broadway revival that audiences got to see Latinx performers in those roles expressly made for Puerto Rican individuals. Spielberg's new adaptation of West Side Story stars newcomer Rachel Zegler as Maria, Ansel Elgort as Tony, Ariana DeBose as Anita, and David Alvarez as Bernardo. The script is written by Pulitzer-winning Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner, who has worked with Spielberg before on 2005's Munich and 2012's Lincoln.
Q: Why did you decide to remake West Side Story?
A: I have this desperate desire to do my version of West Side Story
Q: You were very involved in the writing of the piece
A: Yes, I did it with Tony Kushner. I don’t think there was a scene in this film that Tony and I didn’t feel we had to get absolutely perfect. A scene is simply a progression toward making a point or reaching the end of the story. We both felt that if the scene did not contribute to the overall story—or it didn’t contribute to the growth, or the arc of these characters—that scene should not, would not, find a place in West Side Story. So, every scene has an essential role to play in basically unspooling the story—in celebration of being alive, and in tragedy, because conversation wasn’t able to be had before tragedy occurred. And the message is, that conversation must always be attempted before anything else is attempted. All of these are all little building blocks; it’s like a string of pearls.
Q: There’s been a long wait in your career to finally direct a musical. Why was the wait so long for you?
A: You know, I've asked that question to myself many, many times, because it was always West Side Story I wanted to do. Since I was 10 and listened to the original Broadway cast album, right up ’til I saw the ’61 movie and right through the stage productions I've seen over the years, it's just been my favorite musical, and the music has been in my life, all my life. And it's been in the life of my children too, because when dad likes something, he wants to share it with the kids. I went to Tony Kushner and asked him,: Would you agree to adapt a screenplay from the original Broadway musical, not from the ’61 movie. I started to get a little bit of interest back from Tony who was interested theoretically, and actually from Stephen Sondheim who thought it would be interesting.
Q: You always said that, as a kid, you knew all the lyrics of West Side Story. During some of the scenes, did you want to jump up out of your chair and start singing and dancing with the cast?
A: : I did jump out of my chair, and I did sing and dance with the cast, singing off key, and dancing like I had three left feet, during rehearsal. We did four and a half months of intensive rehearsals, both in the city at Lincoln Center and in Brooklyn in a place called Dumbo.
Q: It is true that you enjoy shooting West Side Story as much as you did shooting E.T?
A: Yes. This was the most delightful family affair I’ve had since E.T. I felt like I was a dad to all of those kids. I was never a dad in my real life, but E.T. made me wanna be a dad, so my first child was born three years after I directed E.T. And this was the next time I had that kind of a feeling, that I was part of a very diverse family and I was not in the center of the family, but I was simply a part of the family. Stephen Sondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story when he was just 24 years old and he just recently passed away.
Q: How involved was Stephen Sondheim with this production?
A: He was involved. Steve was the first person I met when I sought the rights to make our version of West Side Story. He was the first person I sat down and met with at his place in New York City, in person with his dogs. We had met before because my company made Sweeney Todd, the adaptation with Johnny Depp. I met Steve at the premiere of that, for the first time. And then, we bumped into each other at the White House when we received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It was Steve, myself, and Barbra Streisand, all paired together. I wanted to say to Steve, “I have this desperate desire to do my version of West Side Story,” and I just couldn’t get the words out of my mouth. We talked about everything but that.
Q: This is a movie about Latin roots, about speaking in Spanish in the United States and you didn’t subtitle the Spanish dialogs. Why did you do that?
A: I didn’t want to subtitle any of the Spanish out of respect for the inclusivity of our intentions to hire a totally Latino, Latinx cast to play the Shark boys and girls. That was a mandate that I put down to Cindy Tolan, who cast the movie, that I’m not going to entertain any auditions of anybody who isn’t… Parents or grandparents or themselves from Latinx countries, especially Puerto Rico. We have 20 performers in our film from Puerto Rico or they are Nuyoricans. And that was very important. And that goes hand in hand with not subtitling the Spanish. If I subtitled the Spanish, I’d simply be doubling down on the English and giving English the power over the Spanish. And this was not going to happen in this film. I needed to respect the language enough not to subtitle it.
Q: Was that planned out, or was that improvised?
A: No, that was written. That was intentional. They’re going from English to Spanish, with Anita trying to get both her boyfriend, hopefully soon to be her husband, and Maria by saying: We’re in New York now, please assimilate. Please use this language.”Anita keeps correcting everybody. She says, “Speak English.” The whole story starts where Lieutenant Schrank, clearly a white racist, says to anybody speaking Spanish, “In English.” He says, “Don’t speak to me in Spanish, only in English.” And then, Anita, who now wants to be an American in America, is saying, “Speak in English.” So, out of respect, we didn’t subtitle any of the Spanish. That language had to exist in equal proportions alongside the English with no help. It leaves it in the laps of the audience, or in the minds of the audience, to decide that they’re gonna be more attentive because you can tell pretty much what they’re saying. I want Spanish-speaking audiences and English-speaking audiences to sit in the theater together, so that the English-speaking audiences will suddenly hear laughter coming from pockets of the theater, from the Spanish-speaking audience. Because we’re a bilingual country and this feels like a movie for a country that’s bilingual.
Q: Did you ever consider setting the film in the present day? Why did you ultimately decide to set it in the same time period?
A: And I wanted it to look like real kids, not 38 or 39-year-olds, playing 18-year-olds. It was incredibly important that the Sharks and the Jets were all under 23 years old. I’d always thought that the territory they’re fighting about is really a fight about race. The territory that they’re claiming to be worried about is all under the shadow of the wrecking ball, which is why we start to film with a wrecking ball. It’s gonna be an equal opportunity urban renewal project, in order to build the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.
Q: Do you speak Spanish?
A: Much better now that I finished this movie. I’m fascinated with Spanish Culture, one of my dreams is to shoot the story of Hernan Cortes. I read the book Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Moctezuma and the Last Stand of the Aztecs from Buddy Levy. I think there are few moments in history that shape an entire culture such as Cortes’ story. I want to do a series about Cortes filled with drama and adventure.
Q: Have you read any Spanish authors?
A: In English, I must say, I did enjoy very much Don Quixote
María Estévez
Correspondent writer
