Rachel Zegler has revealed being asked about sexual assault allegations against co-star Ansel Elgort were like a ‘gut punch’.
The actress, 20, starred alongside Elgort, 28, in West Side Story but found she was often asked about the accusations against Elgort in interviews.
In 2020, a woman when she was just 17 in 2014, something the actor has denied.
Zegler admitted it was for the film, which was supported to be her ‘biggest moment’ in her life so far, even though he was also present to be asked.
She explained to Elle: ‘It was a real gut punch, honestly… I was sitting there having just turned 19, on the precipice of what was promised to be the biggest moment in my life, and was being held accountable [by the public] for accusations that not only had nothing to do with me but were made about a situation that was said to have occurred [five] years prior to when I had met and worked with this person…
‘[There is] inherent discomfort that comes with that realisation that there are tons of people who think that you have to answer for the actions of an adult male who can speak for himself.
‘It is so wildly disappointing at every turn, no matter how you slice it. No matter how many times I’ve tried to justify people’s concern when it comes to me in my brain, but then realising that it comes from a place of me having to answer for that, and not them actually caring about whether or not I was okay, was really hurtful.’
Zegler added that the line of questioning ‘paid no mind’ to the experiences she and her co-stars had been through in an industry in which they ‘constantly find [themselves] in close encounters with men in power.’
She continued: ‘In the grand scheme of things with this woman who has come forward with these allegations, I cannot imagine what she had to go through.
‘If I’m sitting here thinking that those days were traumatising for me, I don’t pretend to know. I could never know. I really don’t have anything to do with this conversation, and I’m looking forward to moving past it.’
Elgort had denied the accusations in 2020, saying in a statement on Instagram: ‘I was distressed to see the social media post about me that have been circulating in the past 24 hours.
‘I cannot claim to understand [her] feelings but her description of events is simply not what happened. I have never and would never assault anyone.’
Elgort went on to state that ‘what is true’ is that he had a ‘brief legal and entirely consensual relationship’ with the girl in New York back in 2014 when he was 20.
The full interview with Rachel Zegler is in
