In order to win the coveted part she posted clips on twitter in response to the call with her singing ‘Tonight’ and ‘I Feel Pretty’. We however, know this not to be the case with the title role of Maria, played by Zegler, in the new West Side Story, as she was selected from over 30,000 applicants for the role. However, there are the occasional notable examples of films who have prioritised an actors notability over their singing abilities, such as Dwayne Johnson in Moana, or Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia. Hiring actors who cannot sing for musical roles is now almost (*cough* Javert *cough* Russell Crowe) a thing of the past.
Natalie Wood (Maria) was voiced by Marni Nixon, Richard Beymer (Tony) by Jimmy Bryant, Russ Tamblyn (Riff) by Tucker Smith for ‘Jet Song’, and Rita Moreno (Anita) by Betty Ward for the song ‘A Boy Like That’.Ĭredit was not given to voice actors at the time, and Nixon later spoke out for the rights of ghost singers, after she went to court in order to receive royalties from the sales of the soundtrack album.Īccording to Stephen Cole, who co-authored Nixon’s memoirs, I Could Have Sung All Night, Wood knew that Nixon had been hired to sing, however, thought she would only dub the higher notes, not the entire songs.Īfter Wood sang in the studio, Nixon would come in and sing the same song all over again, unbeknownst to Wood.Ĭole reports that Nixon found this barbaric, as the musicians would lie to Wood, telling her she was great, when she wasn’t and they all knew they wouldn’t be using her tracks in the final cut. In fact, the four main characters all had ghost singers. In the 1961 version, very little of the on-screen cast did the singing on the original soundtrack.