MovieChat Forums > West Side Story (1961) Discussion > Natalie Wood STUNK in this film!

Natalie Wood STUNK in this film!


I don't know what any of the rest of you are thinking, but she was AWFUL!!! And Richard Beymer wasn't much better. And George Chakiris was too slight, pretty, and effeminate to be convincing. After Jimmy Dean died -- aside from Brando, Clift, McQueen and Beatty -- all that was left were lightweights.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/66rrpp/what_casting_choice_still_annoys_you/

She couldn't sing so she had to be dubbed for all of her songs by Marni Nixon. And she wasn't even Puerto Rican or Latina. She was American with an extremely Russian background. It's one thing to have an actress dubbed, Marni Nixon did it for a lot of musicals back in the day, but then to have the actress you pick be a white actress in a film about a rivalry between Latin and White gangs looks ridiculous when the Latina love interest is whiter than some of the Jets.

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