Rachel Zegler

Rachel Zegler Accidentaly Started A Rumor That Nicki Minaj Would Be On The ‘Hunger Games’ Soundtrack, Then Revealed She Is A Barb

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While Barbs may still be bummed that Nicki Minaj‘s fifth album Pink Friday 2, which was supposed to be released tomorrow (November 17), won’t arrive for another few weeks, they can still look forward to a tour announcement. Tomorrow also marks the premiere of The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes.

Ahead of the premiere, Rachel Zegler shared a hilarious story on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon about how she accidentally started a rumor that Minaj would be on the movie’s soundtrack.

“It was one of those things where there’s a character named Barb Azure in the movie,” said Zegler. “And the actress who plays Barb Azure has a great sense of humor. Her name is Honor Gillies. She’s so fantastic and posted a video of Nicki Minaj saying, ‘Calling all Barbz’ when she got cast. And her character plays the standup bass in the movie so obviously I commented, ‘Slappin’ that super bass.’ As you would.”

This comment was quickly sniffed out by the Barbz, who immediately began sharing theories on social media that Minaj would contribute to the soundtrack.

“They were screenshotting those comments, posting them all over social media, being like, ‘What is Mother doing?’ They are very, very, very dedicated and amazing,” said Zegler of Minaj’s fan army. “I am a Barb. I love Nicki. But she’s not on the album.”

At one point, Zegler herself even believed Minaj may appear on the soundtrack, recalling how Minaj once shared a video with “The Hanging Tree” from The Hunger Games playing in the background.

“She knew what she was doing. I had no idea what I was doing,” Zegler said. “I didn’t know if she was on the soundtrack so I was like, ‘Okay.’”

Barbz can look forward to hearing Pink Friday 2 on December 8, on the birthday of the Queen Barb herself.

You can see the clip from The Tonight Show above.

Halle Bailey, Who Has Been In Rachel Zegler’s Shoes Before, Supports The ‘Snow White’ Star Amid Casting Criticism

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Halle Bailey
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Work on the live-action Snow White remake is underway, and some photos from the production have caused some drama online. The images, published by The Daily Mail last week, indicated that the roles of the seven dwarves will all, except for one, be played by average-sized people.

This ignited criticism over the movie’s casting and revived questioning about Rachel Zegler portraying the traditionally fair-skinned Snow White character. In particular, Ben Shapiro took exception to Zegler’s casting, saying in part, “[The word ‘white’] is literally in her name. That’s why she has her name. So I guess just to like, screw with people, they’re casting… Rachel Zegler’s a very talented person. It’s weird casting, you might say.”

Now, Halle Bailey, who herself faced some criticism when she was cast as Ariel in the remake of The Little Mermaid, showed support for Zegler.

Sharing some childhood photo of herself wearing various princess outfits, Zegler tweeted on July 15, “extremely appreciative of the love i feel from those defending me online, but please don’t tag me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting. i really, truly do not want to see it. so i leave you w these photos! i hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what.”

Bailey quote-tweeted the post and added, “we love you so much [heart emoji] truly the perfect princess.” Zegler responded, “my sweetest girl [heart emoji] i love you always.”

Rachel Zegler, A Swifty Who Got ‘Screwed By Ticketmaster, Too,’ Got Real About Why She Did The ‘Shazam!’ Sequel

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2019 was clearly a different world for many reasons, but also for the fact that Shazam! felt like such a free-wheeling revelation that it landed on our list of favorite comic-book movies from the past decade. Fast forward to the DC Universe being in a very different place with James Gunn taking over (in more ways than one) as the production house’s new chief. And so, Shazam! Fury of the Gods sits in an odd place where it’s good enough as a placeholder, but it’s not blowing over critics by any stretch of the imagination.

That reality probably makes red carpets awkward, too, but Rachel Zegler (who plays one of Atlas’ daughters, Anthea) doesn’t seem phased. In fact, she was super blunt with The Hollywood Reporter about why she took this gig: “I…. needed a job. I’m being so serious.” She wasn’t done yet after the conclusion of this soundbite.

“The reality is we’re in the middle of a pandemic,” Zegler continued. “[A]nd I was not working and I couldn’t get a job for the life of me, because West Side Story hadn’t come out yet. It was really hard to book work for me.”

That sound bite appeared within around a 2:00 minute interview that saw Zegler also discuss what it’s like to be a Taylor Swift fan. As everyone knows, Swift’s Eras tour kicks off this weekend, and Zegler would like the world to know, “I got screwed by Ticketmaster, too. Celebrities, they’re just like us.”

In other words, Ziegler’s got no dice and no tickets after the conglomerate went down during the crush of Swift ticket sales. She’s certainly not alone in her criticism of Ticketmaster, which came under fire this week from The Cure’s fans due to added fees that subsequently “sickened” lead singer Robert Smith. That’s led to Ticketmaster refunding some fees, but that’s probably not enough to quell the debate.

Nor is it enough to score Zegler any Taylor Swift tickets. However, she did clarify to The Hollywood Reporter that she is a Shazam! fan, too. “I loved the first movie, and the fact that they even wanted me to come in for a callback and then a camera read and then everything in between, I’m so lucky that I got this job,” she revealed. “I made some of my best friends on this job. I just absolutely adore this movie, too, so I’m excited.”

(Via The Hollywood Reporter)