Welcome to Close Up, I'm Kelly Carter, and I don't normally sound this sultry but

allergies, am I right?

But you know what, as my guests on this week's show might say, the show must go on.

Steven Spielberg joins the show with Rachel Zegler, his star in his reimagining of Westside

story.

Together, they talk with me about their hit film, which has earned seven Oscar nominations,

including Best Picture Invest Director and Get This.

Steven Spielberg, and I know you all know who he is, because he's been making movies

for more than 50 years now, becomes the first person nominated for Best Director Oscar

in six different decades.

He actually beat his own record there.

So you know, a key to Spielberg's staying power really is his willingness to take risk

and innovate and adapt with the times.

Instead of scouring Broadway to find his star Rachel Zegler, who played Maria, he took

to social media to find someone fresh and someone who was truly special.

And in case you're wondering, more than 30,000 hopefuls sent in submissions hoping to perform

for Steven Spielberg.

Rachel is the first Latina Maria, and you'll hear her talk more about this later in our

interview.

I mean, look, this is a movie about race relations in New York City between white people and

between Puerto Ricans.

And in this remake, every actor playing a Puerto Rican character is of Latin descent.

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