Rachel Zegler addresses sexual assault allegations against co-star Ansel Elgort

Rachel Zegler has addressed the sexual assault allegations against her West Side Story co-star Ansel Elgort for the first time.

In June 2020, months after Steven Spielberg's movie musical had completed filming, a woman accused the actor of sexually assaulting her in 2014 when she was 17 and he was 20. He denied the allegations in a statement at the time.

In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 20-year-old actress, as well as her co-stars Ariana DeBose and Rita Moreno, were asked about the allegations against their co-star.

"We made a movie two and a half years ago, and a lot has gone on in the world since then," Zegler replied. "A lot has changed very publicly, and privately as well. There's been a lot of awakening."

She added that she hopes that "the people involved are okay, that they are asked in a respectful manner and that they are given the opportunity to answer for themselves."

Moreno insisted that it would be "absolutely horrendous and wrong" for anyone not involved to "take sides in the matter", as it is not "for me to make those judgements".

"Nobody really knows what's going on in anyone's head," DeBose added, concluding that "only the people who were involved in that situation know what actually went down."

Before their movie was released in December last year, Elgort, who plays Zegler's onscreen love interest Tony, only participated in group interviews to promote the film and has not spoken about the accusations since his original statement.

At the time, he admitted to having a "brief, legal, and entirely consensual relationship" with the woman and insisted, "I have never and would never assault anyone".