'West Side Story' Star Reveals Breast Cancer Scare
Rachel Zegler shared some surprising news on Instagram over the weekend. The West Side Story star said she had a breast cancer scare when she was 19. Zegler, 21, is now working on the first Hunger Games prequel, which will open next year.
"Two years ago I found a lump in my breast and went through what was undoubtedly the scariest week of my life," Zegler wrote in a since-expired Instagram Stories post, reports E! News. "No OB/GYN was taking new patients due to the backlog of the pandemic, but I was fortunate to have the care of my pediatrician who prescribed me an ultrasound, which led to an outpatient biopsy procedure." Thankfully, the lump turned out to be benign.
Zegler included a black and white photo of herself with the scar she has from the procedure. It "serves as a reminder to check my breasts regularly for any irregular growth," the Snow White star wrote. "The fibroadenoma in my left breast is a common occurrence but nevertheless extremely scary to find... Early detection saves lives!!! Check your t— meat."
This is not the first time Zegler was honest about her health. In 2018, a year before Steven Spielberg cast her as Maria in West Side Story, she shared her experience with anxiety and depression, notes PEOPLE. "Hello. My name is Rachel. I suffer from anxiety and depression, and occasionally feel depersonalized/disassociated from reality. I am a work in progress. I am finding the common ground between me and my mind. And that's enough," she wrote at the time. "But please, ask if I'm okay. #EndTheStigma."
Zegler's next movie is Shazam: Fury of the Gods, which Warner Bros. will release on March 17. She plays Anthea, one of the daughters of Atlas that the Shazam family has to face. Zegler also plays Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which opens on Nov. 17, 2023. Disney also cast her in the title role for the live-action Snow White, which also stars Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. It hits theaters on March 22, 2024, and is directed by Marc Webb.
The new Snow White will be updated significantly from the 1937 animated film. "I think she's 13 in the original cartoon, so we started there and said, 'No, she's 18 in this one.' She's a bit more independent," Zegler told PEOPLE at the D23 Expo earlier this month. "She's also living in grief. I mean, there was a lot of complex emotion that we decided to deep-dive into. And understanding what it's like to be a teenager on top of all that."
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