Josh Andrés Rivera is feeling like a proud boyfriend seeing Rachel Zegler take to the stage in the new Broadway play Romeo + Juliet.
“Rachel just made her Broadway debut, which is really, really, exciting,” Rivera, 29, gushed while chatting exclusively with Us Weekly at the Newport Beach Film Festival Honors Brunch at the Balboa Bay Club and Resort on Sunday, October 20. “I went to see the show a couple weeks ago and it’s incredible. Everybody go see it. It’s so good.”
Zegler, 23, stars alongside Heartstopper’s Kit Connor as the Shakespearean play’s titular star-crossed lovers. Zegler took her first Broadway bow during the show’s first preview last month but will make her official Broadway debut when the production opens on Thursday, October 24.
Performing on the Great White Way is something Zegler has been a dream of hers since she was 4 years old. “For years and years, as a teenager, I tried to get the chance to be on these stages,” she wrote via Instagram on September 28. “Life had other plans for which I remain insanely grateful. my love for making movies will never go away, but my home will always be the stage.”
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Zegler and Rivera’s relationship has a Broadway connection as they met playing Maria and Chino, respectively, in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 movie musical remake of West Side Story. The couple confirmed their relationship in February 2021 and went on to share the screen again in the 2023 Hunger Games prequel film, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Having a girlfriend who is also a part of the entertainment industry is something Rivera told Us is very special. “When you think about the kind of industry we’re in, it’s a very specific thing that it’s hard to explain what the perspective is like,” he explained. It’s nice to be with somebody who understands that, to be able to communicate the things that we’re going through with one another.”
Just as Zegler is achieving her latest career milestone, River is making moves of his own by starring in the new FX series American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez.
“It’s very exciting to have kind of parallel things that are just slightly different as well that we’re both doing,” he told Us. “It’s neat. It’s exciting.”
Rivers stars as former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez in the miniseries, which premiered last month. The show follows the athlete’s rise to football stardom and arrest for the 2013 murder of Odin Lloyd. Hernandez was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2015 and died in jail two years later at the age of 27.
“Unlike a lot of people, I wasn’t super familiar with the story when I first approached it. It wasn’t until the prospect of auditioning for it came along when I really dove into all of the information and there’s a lot,” Rivera told Us of taking on the role of Hernandez. “There’s a lot of different sides to the story. There’s a lot of different perspectives, depending on who you ask. I have to take a lot of these facts at face value and just figure out how I internalize it, while also being responsible with the existing perspectives. There’s a lot of stuff.”
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The actor also gained around “30 pounds” for the part, which he is now trying to lose. “It’s fun to be a big boy. It’s not very versatile unless I’m doing action movies or stuff like that,” Rivera quipped. “I’m in the process of kind of leaning out, but it was fun while it lasted. I’m not gonna lie to you, I liked being a big boy.”
New episodes of American Sports Story: Aaron Hernandez premiere on FX Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Mike Vulpo
