{"id":16094,"date":"2021-12-13T23:38:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T23:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blue-subtitle.com\/blog\/?p=16094"},"modified":"2021-12-13T23:38:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T23:38:56","slug":"how-west-side-story-tried-to-contain-its-ansel-elgort-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blue-subtitle.com\/blog\/how-west-side-story-tried-to-contain-its-ansel-elgort-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018West Side Story\u2019 Tried to Contain Its Ansel Elgort Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

When \u201cWest Side Story\u201d star\u00a0Ansel Elgort\u00a0appeared on \u201cThe Late Late Show with James Corden\u201d on Dec. 8, he gushed about attending the lavish New York City premiere for the Steven Spielberg film at Lincoln Center. He shared the advice the late Stephen Sondheim, who wrote the lyrics for the show, gave him after a recording session for the movie didn\u2019t go well. And he gamely demonstrated how, as a kid, he\u2019d parade around his home performing music from \u201cFiddler on the Roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, it was a standard, harmless late night talk show segment. Unless, that is, you looked at the comments for Elgort\u2019s appearance\u00a0on the show\u2019s YouTube page.<\/p>\n

A small sample:<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who made this happen\u2026 should be extremely disappointed and disgusted with themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cAsk him why he preys on high school sophomores\/juniors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the accusations against Ansel?\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments all stem from an allegation a woman posted to Twitter on June 19, 2020, that Elgort \u201csexually assaulted\u201d her when she was 17 and he was 20. The woman said she had messaged Elgort over social media and they connected via Snapchat. \u201cI was just a kid and was a fan of him,\u201d she wrote. \u201cSo when it happened, instead of asking me if I wanted to stop having sex, knowing it was my first time and I was sobbing in pain and I didn\u2019t want to do it, the only words that came out of his mouth were \u2018we need to break you in.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The allegation instantly went viral.\u00a0The following day, Elgort, now 27, posted to Instagram that he did have a \u201cbrief, legal and entirely consensual relationship\u201d with the woman, and that he ghosted her after they broke up, which he said was \u201can immature and cruel thing to do to someone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as for the woman\u2019s allegation of assault, Elgort wrote that \u201cher description of events is simply not what happened. I have never and would never assault anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the #MeToo era began, allegations like this have totally derailed careers and upended the release plans for major films. The allegations of sexual abuse\u00a0against Armie Hammer\u00a0at the start of 2021, for example, caused him to be recast in\u00a0several projects\u00a0and put the release of his last studio film, 20th Century Studios\u2019 ensemble mystery \u201cDeath on the Nile,\u201d\u00a0into question. (Hammer has denied any wrongdoing.)<\/p>\n

At first, it seemed like something similar would happen with Elgort and \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d especially considering that, aside from Rita Moreno, he is the most famous face in the cast \u2014 thanks to his breakout roles in \u201cThe Fault in Our Stars\u201d and \u201cBaby Driver.\u201d Disney\u2019s decision to push the December 2020 release a year due to COVID-19 bought the movie some time, at least, but it didn\u2019t change the fact that the leading man of one of cinema\u2019s most beloved and iconic love stories had been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. (Representatives for Elgort and Disney declined to comment for this story.)<\/p>\n

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Reshooting Elgort\u2019s role \u2014 like Christopher Plummer did for Kevin Spacey\u2019s role in 2017\u2019s \u201cAll the Money in the World\u201d and Tig Notaro did for Chris D\u2019Elia\u2019s role in 2021\u2019s \u201cArmy of the Dead\u201d \u2014 was a non-starter: Unlike Plummer and Notaro, Elgort is not a supporting performer. Reproducing virtually all of the vast, intricate sets in \u201cWest Side Story\u201d would have been cost prohibitive. Elgort\u2019s limited presence in the movie\u2019s\u00a0trailers\u00a0led some observers to conclude that the studio\u2019s strategy would be to severely curtail the actor\u2019s media exposure.<\/p>\n

Instead, Disney has engaged in a dexterous press strategy to put Elgort in the public eye in a way that has minimized any possible fallout. It\u2019s helped that Elgort has been an enthusiastic participant in the \u201cWest Side Story\u201d press tour. Along with talking with James Corden, Elgort\u00a0appeared\u00a0on \u201cThe Drew Barrymore Show,\u201d\u00a0presented\u00a0on the American Music Awards,\u00a0participated\u00a0in\u00a0dozens of\u00a0interviews\u00a0during the global press junket and walked the\u00a0full\u00a0press\u00a0line\u00a0at the New York City premiere.<\/p>\n

He has not, however, sat for the kind of in-depth, one-on-one interviews one would expect of the star of a movie of this stature: no feature profiles or cover stories, no lengthy podcast interviews, nothing in which he would almost certainly have been asked about the assault allegation. His junket interviews were also grouped with other actors, further protecting Elgort from the potential of uncomfortable questions. And while he has posted a few times to Instagram about \u201cWest Side Story,\u201d he\u2019s stayed off Twitter entirely, preventing him from promoting the film to his 3.3 million followers there.<\/p>\n

Still, Elgort has been talking, and, to date, no one has asked him about the allegation, including in a brief interview with\u00a0Variety<\/em>\u00a0at the New York premiere.<\/p>\n

Another complicating factor is that the entire episode unfolded exclusively over social media. Within days of her original post to Twitter, the woman deleted the tweet, shut down her account and has not posted about it since. Elgort also deleted the Instagram post with his response. Other women have since posted to Twitter alleging that Elgort\u00a0made inappropriate overtures to them\u00a0over social media when they were underage, with screengrabs that appear to support their claims. But Elgort has not commented on those allegations; no one else has accused Elgort of anything similar to the original assault allegation; and none of the allegations against him have been independently corroborated.<\/p>\n

In that atmosphere, and with a press corps unwilling to broach a contentious subject in an inconvenient forum, Elgort has navigated the \u201cWest Side Story\u201d release without ever having to address what could have been a career-killing allegation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to know what impact these efforts have ultimately had on the movie, which debuted this weekend with\u00a0an estimated $10.5 million\u00a0domestically \u2014 a striking disappointment that likely has as much to do with consumer reticence to return to movie theaters amid the Omicron COVID-19 variant as any other reason. But it is at least clear that Elgort\u2019s professional life does not appear to have been harmed. The actor spent much of 2021 shooting the first season of the HBO Max series \u201cTokyo Vice\u201d with directors Michael Mann and Destin Daniel Cretton. And after \u201cWest Side Story\u201d screened for members of SAG-AFTRA the day before the New York City premiere, Elgort was the first member of the cast to step to the stage for the follow-up Q&A. He received an enthusiastic standing ovation.<\/p>\n

Elgort better hope, however, that no one posts the moment to the internet. There\u2019s not nearly as much applause there.<\/p>\n

Source:variety<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When \u201cWest Side Story\u201d star\u00a0Ansel Elgort\u00a0appeared on \u201cThe Late Late Show with James Corden\u201d on Dec. 8, he gushed about attending the lavish New York City premiere for the Steven Spielberg film at Lincoln Center. 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