It’s official — Rachel Zegler is the people’s action hero.
The New Jersey actor was named best action star at the People’s Choice Awards Sunday.
Zegler, 22, won the award for her performance as the musically gifted tribute Lucy Gray Baird in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”
The People’s Choice Awards are determined by fan voting. “The Hunger Games” was also named best action movie at the awards ceremony.
Zegler, who grew up in Clifton, kissed her boyfriend, an elated Josh Andrés Rivera — her co-star in “The Hunger Games” — before going onstage to accept the award.
“I love movies,” she said. “I love making them. And I am a fan of movies, and I’m surrounded by movie fans tonight and movie fans who voted and I’m so thankful to everyone who’s ever bought a ticket and watched something that so many people have made.”
“For so long in this business, I didn’t think I fit in,” Zegler continued. “But tonight you have made me feel like I don’t have to change myself to be chosen and I appreciate you so much.”
Zegler went on to thank director Francis Lawrence and the filmmakers behind “The Hunger Games” as well as her co-star, Tom Blyth — “the best scene partner.” Blyth plays a young Coriolanus Snow, mentor to Zegler’s character in the movie.
She also thanked Rivera, “the best life partner,” her family and “Hunger Games” author Suzanne Collins.
“The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” is a “Hunger Games” prequel set 64 years before the time of Katniss Everdeen (played by Jennifer Lawrence in the franchise’s earlier films).
For more: Rachel Zegler ‘Hunger Games’ interview
“It’s just a really nice way to feed ‘Hunger Games’ fans,” Zegler told NJ Advance Media last year. “As a ‘Hunger Games’ fan myself, the fan base is really the reason we’re still sitting here 15 years post-release of the first book.”
At the People’s Choice Awards, the Jersey actor was seated next to Jennifer Aniston, who inspired Zegler’s mother to name her daughter after Rachel Green, her character from “Friends.” (See Zegler’s impression of Aniston’s Rachel.)
In 2022, Zegler won a Golden Globe for best actress in a motion picture musical or comedy for her film debut — playing Maria in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 version of “West Side Story.” In both the movie musical and “The Hunger Games,” Zegler’s impressive voice has been on full display.
Growing up in North Jersey, the actor was a frequent star of school musicals at Lodi’s Immaculate Conception High School.
Zegler met Rivera, 28, who plays Sejanus Plinth in “The Hunger Games,” while working on “West Side Story” (he played Chino, Maria’s date to a dance).
The couple celebrated their two-year anniversary in October.
Zegler’s upcoming roles include Snow White in Disney’s 2025 live-action, retooled version of the story from the animated film.
