Original 'West Side Story' stars George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn remember 1961 classic and discuss its lack of diversity

#1:Original 'West Side Story' stars George Chakiris and Russ Tamblyn remember 1961 classic and discuss its lack of diversity

 

 There may be a rumble among movie musical fans when Steven Spielberg's West Side Story remake premieres in theaters on Dec. 10 — 60 years after the beloved 1961 version, co-directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins. But George "Bernardo" Chakiris and Russ "Riff" Tamblyn already know which side they'll be on... and this time, it's the same one.
"I think ours is the best West Side Story," Tamblyn says about the earlier film, in which he plays the leader of the Jets opposite Chakiris's leader of the Sharks. "I mean, it won a few Academy Awards!"
To be fair, neither Tamblyn nor Chakiris — who reunited for a special Yahoo Entertainment chat — have seen Spielberg's West Side Story yet, and both actors are looking forward to being in attendance for the movie's New York City premiere in early December. They also have good reason for being proud of their version, which returns to theaters on Nov. 28 and Dec. 1 as part of TCM's Big Screen Classics series, organized by TCM and Fathom Events.

After all, as Tamblyn correctly notes, the 1961 film dominated the competition at that year's Oscars, dancing away with 11 statues, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress trophies for Chakiris and Rita Moreno, who played Bernardo's girlfriend, Anita (and who appears in the new film, too, as store owner Valentina). To this day, it's considered one of the greatest movie musicals of all time, and the gold standard when it comes to translating a Broadway favorite to the big screen.
Tamblyn says that he was able to spend some time on the set of the new film, and even had a heart-to-heart with Mike Faist, who plays the new Riff. "I asked him, 'Are you doing some acrobatics too?'" remembers Tamblyn, who cheerfully admits to being more of an acrobat than a dancer. "He said, 'No,' and I thought to myself, 'Well, I'm ahead of you on that!'"  

One area where the new West Side Story pulls ahead of its predecessor is in the diversity of its ensemble. Spielberg made a point of casting Latinx performers as the movie's Puerto Rican characters, with Colombian-American singer Rachel Zegler making her big-screen debut as Maria, whose star-crossed love affair with Tony (Ansel Elgort) bring the already-rival gangs into further conflict. Natalie Wood famously played Maria in the 1961 version, and other key roles were similarly occupied by non-Latinx actors.
That includes Chakiris, who was cast as Bernardo despite being of Greek descent. The actor had played Riff in the West End production of West Side Story for almost two years before he auditioned for the film version. "In London, I played opposite Ken LeRoy, who was the original Bernardo [on Broadway], and he was incredible," Chakiris remembers of how he approached the role. (LeRoy was also a non-Latinx actor.) "I watched him for a year-and-a-half eight times a week, and he showed me everything. Seeing him do it was like osmosis — you couldn't help but take things in."