History Trivia / WestSideStory2021

* BoxOfficeBomb: Budget: $100 million. Total worldwide gross as of March 2022: ~ $72 million. The lack of returns was attributed to the poor marketing, the lack of big stars in the cast outside of Creator/AnselElgort and Creator/RachelZegler, the surge of the COVID-19 Omicron variant keeping older audiences (its main target demographic) at home, and being released close to the highly-anticipated ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome''.

* BannedInChina: Banned in multiple Middle Eastern countries for containing a transgender character, [[QueerCharacterQueerActor played by non-binary actor Iris Menas (zie/hir).]] Co-producer Kevin [=McCollum=] compared the situation to when Creator/WilliamShakespeare had to contend with the [[MoralGuardians Puritans]] who viewed otherwise-innocuous works such as theatre as the [[EveryoneIsSatanInHell work of the devil]]:

* QueerCharacterQueerActor: Anybodys is stated to be a trans man in this version, and is played by non-binary actor Iris Menas.

* BannedInChina: Banned in multiple Middle Eastern countries for containing a transgender character, [[QueerCharacterQueerActor played by non-binary actor iris menas (zie/hir).]] Co-producer Kevin [=McCollum=] compared the situation to when Creator/WilliamShakespeare had to contend with the [[MoralGuardians Puritans]] who viewed otherwise-innocuous works such as theatre as the [[EveryoneIsSatanInHell work of the devil]]:

* QueerCharacterQueerActor: Anybodys is stated to be a trans man in this version, and is played by non-binary actor iris menas.

* RealLifeRelative: David and Jacob Guzman, who play Tino and Junior, respectively, are twins.

* AcclaimedFlop: The film has received rapturous acclaim from both critics and audiences alike, receiving boatloads of awards nominations, with many stating in some ways it might even be superior to Robert Wise's/Jerome Robbins' hallowed, Oscar sweeping, pop culture landmark '61 adaptation. This did not however translate to success at the box office, as in its first weekend it grossed a little over $10 million, against a $100 million budget. The heavily-anticipated ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' coming out a week later and becoming the biggest Christmas release ever, combined with the increasing spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant keeping older audiences at home, heavily hampered its performance. Many of the actors, including Rachel Zegler, have taken this in stride, noting that it was either them or Spider-Man.

** George Chakiris (Bernardo in the 1961 film) was invited to the premiere, but had to cancel due to a cold. He nevertheless wished the film well.

** Steven Spielberg approached his longtime collaborator John Williams to serve as the film's music director. Williams instead suggested composer Music/DavidNewman and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, though he still worked on the film as a consultant. Williams actually played piano on the soundtrack for the 1961 film.

** Steven Spielberg approached his longtime collaborator John Williams to serve as the film's music director. Williams instead suggested composer Music/DavidNewman and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, though he still worked on the film as a consultant.

* WordOfStPaul: Both Kyle Coffman and Kevin Csolak, Ice and Diesel's respective actors, [[WordOfSaintPaul shed some light on them]] in the ''Making of West Side Story'' book:

** On the other, some dubs, like the Korean and Japanese ones, play this trope painfully straight, even when the Puerto Ricans characters could had being voiced by voice actors of foreign ancestry as a stand-ins for Latinos when using Spanish-speaking actors is not always a possibility.[[note]]This is especially egregious in the Japanese case, as Japan has no shortage of actors of foreign origin, being the well-known ones including Creator/RomiPark (Korean-Japanese), Creator/SubaruKimura (German-Japanese), Creator/ArthurLounsbery (American-Japanese), and that without including voice actors that, while ethnically Japanese, they were born overseas like Creator/HarunaIkezawa (born in Greece) or Creator/TetsuyaKakihara (born in Germany). This is even more bizarre if you take into account the Japanese version of the original play had casted such kind of actors before, being the most notorious cases Erika Hanada and Mika Takagi, both Korean-Japanese and the French-Japanese Ema Miyazawa as Maria, and the Burmese-Japanese Win Morisaki as Tony, despite that character being white.[[/note]]

** On the other, some dubs, like the Korean and Japanese ones, play this trope painfully straight, even when the Puerto Ricans characters could had being voiced by voice actors of foreign ancestry as a stand-ins for Latinos when using Spanish-speaking actors is not always a possibility.[[note]]This is especially egregious in the Japanese case, as Japan has no shortage of actors of foreign origin, being the well-known ones including Creator/RomiPark (Korean-Japanese), Creator/SubaruKimura (German-Japanese), Creator/ArthurLounsbery (American-Japanese), and that without including voice actors that, while ethnically Japanese, they were born overseas like Creator/HarunaIkezawa (born in Greece) or Creator/TetsuyaKakihara (born in Germany). [[/note]]

** On the other, some dubs, like the Korean and Japanese ones, play this trope painfully straight, even when the Puerto Ricans characters could had being voiced by voice actors of foreign ancestry.[[note]]This is especially egregious in the Japanese case, as Japan has many voice actors of foreign origin, being the well-known ones including Creator/RomiPark (Korean-Japanese), Creator/SubaruKimura (German-Japanese), Creator/ArthurLounsbery (American-Japanese), and that without including voice actors that, while ethnically Japanese, they were born overseas like Creator/HarunaIkezawa (born in Greece) or Creator/TetsuyaKakihara (born in Germany).[[/note]]

* MultipleLanguagesSameVoiceActor: All the Latino actors from the film, barring a few ones, reprise their roles in the Latin American and European Spanish dubs.

* RealLifeRelative, David and Jacob Guzman, who play Tino and Junior, respectively, are twins.

* WordOfGod: According to the script, Bernardo is 18, which would make him and María twins. On Twitter, Rachel Zegler [[https://twitter.com/rachelzegler/status/1483790161402081285?s=20 stated that]] there was supposed to be an age gap of 3 to 5 years.

** One of Tony Kushner's scrapped ideas for "America" was to have [[https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/movies-tv/tony-kushner-discusses-updating-the-sharks-vs-jets-clash-in-west-side-story the song start off with Bernardo having a dream about him and Anita being back in Puerto Rico swimming on a beach before waking up in their New York apartment]].

** This is Creator/RachelZegler's first screen role. She was primarily known as a YouTuber and musical theatre performer before she heard about an open casting call for the film, in which ''30,000'' young women auditioned to play María.

** In the Japanese dub, Creator/MamoruMiyano, who played Tony in the 2019 Japanese version of the play, reprise that role in the dub of the film.

* BillingDisplacement: Rachel Zegler is the last principal actor billed in the end credits, despite being the female lead. Justified due to her newcomer status.

* CreatorBreakdown: Rita Moreno described the most difficult scene to film was the one where Valentina [[spoiler: saves Anita from her attempted rape at the hands of the Jets]]. Filming that scene in the original had already brought up traumatic memories for her, to the point that the Jet actors immediately broke character when they realized she was having a panic attack, so it was an especially surreal experience to play it out again now saving the character she had originally portrayed.

--> I think we have to remember that during Shakespeare’s time, at the height, the Puritans came in and tore all of the theaters down. You couldn’t go to the theater, and yet Shakespeare survived. ... I believe that love will win, and this is a story about love, made with love, and what happens when you try to keep people from loving freely. ... I think we’ve done our jobs as artists to make this film, and the world will discover it even if certain cultures decide they don’t want it in their borders.

** In the Japanese dub, Creator/MamoruMiyano, who played Tony in the modern Japanese version of the play, reprise that role in the dub of the film.

* RoleReprise: Rachel Zegler played María onstage at the Bergen Performing Arts Center at the age of 16 before being cast for the film.