Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed adaptation of West Side Story disappointed this weekend with an opening of $10.5 million, well below the $12-17 million the film had been tracking at heading into the weekend. Reasons for the lower-than-expected opening are ranging from a lack of interest in movie musicals to the adult target audience still being unsure about heading to their local movie theater. Another reason that is picking up steam due to stories from “Variety” and TMZ is that Ansel Elgort, who plays Tony in the film, became a problematic figure in terms of promoting the film because of past allegations against the actor that have reemerged in the wake of the film’s release.
“Variety” points to Elgort’s appearance on The Late Late Show with Jame Corden on December 8, 2021, where Elgort talks about attending the lavish New York City premiere for the film at the Lincoln Center. It was a standard appearance to promote the film with the typical stories about how as a kid he would sing songs from the late Stephen Sondheim which became a full circle moment as he appears in West Side Story. Everything seems normal but “Variety” focused attention on the comments for Elgort’s appearance on the show’s YouTube page. Some of the comments read, “Everyone who made this happen…should be extremely disappointed and disgusted with themselves.” Another comment states, “Hollywood waited a year hoping everyone would forget to try and bring Ansel back into the Hollywood scene. They think we’re dumb?” A sample of the comments gets more pointed when they say, “Ask him why he preys on high school sophomores/juniors” and “What about the accusations against Ansel?”
This all comes from an allegation a woman posted to Twitter on June 19, 2020. The woman alleged that Elgort “sexually assaulted” her when she was 17 and he was 20. She detailed how she had messaged Elgort over social media and they connected on Snapchat. At the time the woman said, “I was just a kid and was a fan of him so 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’t want to do it, the only words that came out his mouth were, ‘we need to break you in.'”
In the age of cancel culture, the allegation instantly went viral and Elgort quickly tried to come out ahead of it. The next day, the now 27-year-old actor posted to his Instagram and explained that he did have a “brief, legal and entirely consensual relationship” with the woman in question and he ghosted her after they broke up which as he put it, was “an immature and cruel thing to do to someone.” When it came to the allegation of assault, Elgort stated that “her description of events is simply not what happened. I have never and would never assault anyone.”
This would typically derail a young actor’s career. Look no further than Armie Hammer at the start of 2021 as allegations of sexual abuse resulted in him being recast in a slew of projects. I won’t say that Elgort got lucky but Disney was able to buy some time with West Side Story and Elgort being one of the most famous faces in the cast when the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the December 2020 release date by a year. Elgort was able to essentially lay low and hope that people would forget. That’s the thing though. People don’t forget and now Elgort is at the center of one of the most beloved love stories and has also been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. The internet wanted to make it clear that this allegation did happen and that has made promoting the film with Elgort extremely problematic.
Some believed that his minimal exposure in the film’s trailers was a strategic move by Disney to shift the focus from Elgort even though he’s the male lead but that all changed as the film’s promotional tour began. He has given enthusiastic appearances on The Drew Barrymore Show, presented on the American Music Awards, and was involved in dozens of interviews during the global press junket. The actor even walked the full press line at the New York City premiere. What has been uncommon is that, for an actor of his stature who is the lead of a Steven Spielberg film, he has given no in-depth one-on-one interviews and hasn’t been featured on any profiles or cover stories to promote the movie. His junket interviews were done with Elgort being grouped with other actors from the production which likely prevented any awkward questions that may have popped up if he was interviewed by the press alone. The actor has also stayed off Twitter during the promotional tour which could’ve given the film a marketing bump as he has 3.3 million followers on the platform. Even though his time with the media has seemed a bit minimalized during the press tour, no one has asked Elgort the burning question about the allegation but social media seems to be doing what the media can’t as you can see from a few examples below:
It should be noted that Elgort was never charged with a crime and the woman deleted her original post about the alleged incident within days of making it live and shut down her account and has not posted about it since. Elgort also deleted the Instagram post addressing the incident. In the wake of the woman posting her original story, other women have since posted to Twitter with allegations that the actor made inappropriate overtures to them over social media when they were underage and supported those claims with screengrabs that appear to support their allegations. Elgort has not responded to those particular allegations and no one else has accused the actor of anything similar since and the claims have never been independently corroborated.
Perhaps this isn’t a career-killing moment for the actor. There is no hard evidence that this could be a reason the film is underperforming. It’s a theory but definitely not a hard fact. Elgort’s professional life seems to still be on track as he spent most of 2021 shooting the HBO Max series Tokyo Vice. “Variety’ also noted that after the New York City premiere of West Side Story, Elgort was the first member of the cast to hit the stage for the follow-up Q&A and he received a standing ovation. Time will tell how this all plays out but speculation will certainly make for some in-depth water cooler talk.
Do YOU think past allegations against Ansel Elgort were a factor in West Side Story’s underwhelming opening weekend box office?