Rachel Zegler on joining Shazam! Fury Of The Gods: “I needed a job. I’m being so serious.”
The West Side Story star says the pandemic made it hard to secure gigs
Aux News Shazam
Now that Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is in theaters, Rachel Zegler is opening up about why she took the role of Anthea in the DC film. No, it doesn’t stem from a passion for superhero storytelling or because the role was just so perfectly suited for her, but for the same reason many of us do the less glamorous parts of our jobs: For a paycheck.
“I needed a job. I’m being so serious,” Zegler says on the Shazam red carpet.
“The reality is we’re in the middle of a pandemic and 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,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It was really hard to book work for me.”
It’s probably a similar line of logic that leads many high-profile actors to do a stint within the superhero industrial complex. In an industry that’s increasingly deprioritizing non-franchise projects, taking on a role in a film of this nature nowadays feels more like “paying one’s dues” or a quick cash grab that allows actors to pursue less economical, but more meaningful projects. Take Oscar Isaac, who straight after appearing in Marvel’s Moon Knight (2022), has since been leading a stage production of The Sign In Sidney Brustein’s Window at Brooklyn’s Academy Of Music.
As Marvel and DC both continue to churn out numerous projects a year, it’s no surprise that the productions have all but turned into a revolving door of one-off appearances from esteemed actors. The lucky ones manage to get in, get paid, and get out without a lengthy contract tying them down from other projects for years. With the state of DC, there’s no telling if Zegler will return for another film, but it seems she had fun making this one, even if it came from a more financially desperate place.
“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,” Zegler says. “I made some of my best friends on this job. I just absolutely adore this movie, too, so I’m excited.”
Ultimately, as actors now regularly forget their involvement in MCU and DC projects, it’s nice to hear a bit more honesty about how they end up in these roles, rather than waxing poetic about a character like Shazam.
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You’d have to pay me to watch the movie, so I can kind of understand.
wow, sick burn?
Backhanded compliment, but the first one was one of the best DCU movies.
Not the highest bar to clear, really.
I’ts definitely better than Marvel’s phase Four. Also not the highest bar to clear.
The only thing that really keeps me from rewatching it is the focus on kid/school drama, which I’m just sick in movies. It annoyed me in the Spider-man films too since it always comes off like an episode of Saved by the Bell because everything fits into film stereotypes.
Zack Morris canonically had super powers. The kid could freeze time.
Good for her for being honest, and for not being like ‘I grew up reading comics, this is a dream come true because I’m such a nerd’ etc.
Breaking news, working actor takes job that pays money.
Sounds like you need a better agent.
Oh shocking a working actor took a job for work. This isn’t a burn as anyone who is or knows an actor knows. Plus what about this: “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,” Zegler says. “I made some of my best friends on this job. I just absolutely adore this movie, too, so I’m excited.”
Are you quoting the article at itself?
Evidently.
Not everybody can go from their parents’ basement to a paragon of entertainment journalism like the AV Club (while still living in said basement). Taking a job because you need one is so reserved for the unwashed masses.
Yeah, a lot of us had to hustle for work during the pandemic. Goodness, I even heard Gwyneth Paltrow had to eat bread.
loool
Goop must have an IV bread now.
Yeah, and I bet it tastes just like her…you know.
Yeasty
“Blue waffles for my friends and family!” – GP
SHE’S BEEN REDUCED TO SHOVING GRANITE VAGINA EGGS UP HER SEMEN SOCKET! THE IMPOVERISHNESS OF IT ALL!
The Snyder dorks are already frothing that the new regime isn’t hiring people with PASSION FOR THE LORE!!!1!
Hey, Snyder had passion. He just had little understanding of the foundation that made the lore ‘work’ while adapting it leading to little more than a collage of references to famous comic arcs that is rarely coherent when you stop thinking “blatant symbolism = depth”.
Sometimes I think Christopher Nolan was the worst thing to happen to DC when it comes to storytelling.
Nolan wasn’t the worst thing to happen to DC. But his success has encouraged DC to embrace the worst impulses of the people hired to make DC movies.
Yeah she now shares a movie where she is on screen with Helen Mirren. Why wouldnt you take this job?
I’m not sure Oscar Isaac, who was also in a godawful cash-grab X-Men movie and three Star Wars movies that were… let’s go with “wildly divisive,” thinks of “Moon Knight” – which at least did one of the better portrayals of DID and also gave him the likes of Ethan Hawke and F. Murray Abraham to bounce of off (not to mention the underrated May Calamawy) – as slumming it. Plus, in case you haven’t noticed, he hasn’t exactly had trouble finding work in the last few years, pandemic notwithstanding.
Also, Disney has all the money and even doesn’t mind sharing it with some of the actors, if not necessarily the rest of the creatives and crew on a production, but I’m not sure that the shows are paying out at nearly the same rate as the movies. He wasn’t volunteering his time or anything, but it was probably still pennies compared to him appearing for a few minutes in Dune
Making shitty movies to subsidize passion projects has been a part of Hollywood forever.
Foreshadowing?
Actors: They’re just like us (apart from the vast difference in pay rates).
You didn’t NEED a job, ma’am. I suspect your last paycheck was for more than I’ll see in my life.
Ke Huy Quan faced a similar issue. He’s talked about doing losing his health insurance in the time between filming EEAAO and when it came out. Other than Finding ‘Ohana, he got almost no work in the interval. Even though he was on the market, he was not in demand.
Being discovered by Spielberg hasn’t always been a thing, you know…