Soon to be the face of the newest Hunger Games iteration – Sunrise on the Reaping – Whitney Peak suddenly becomes something universal – a name obsessed over by studios and superfans alike. It’s dream-making, but also daunting a full-on zoom in of attention and expectation. And yet she’s riding it all with a cool-headed authenticity and ambition that feels effortless: the perfect formula for the modern spotlight. Where Hunger Games is fierce, 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank is frenzied – a live-wire, anarchic graphic-novel heist movie in which Peak stars alongside Liam Neeson, Talia Ryder and Jack Dylan Grazer. It’s this sort of tentpole-indie juggle that proves she can do it all: the intimate and the explosive.

Rachel Zegler gets it, she knows the blink-and-you’re-famous journey that comes with Hunger Games fame. Where Jennifer Lawrence once guided her, Zegler is now doing the same for Peak – a real-time passing of the torch among the women of Panem. After many DMs and much mutual admiration, here Peak and Zegler finally meet face-to-face, mapping out what it really means to rise – and stay grounded – inside a franchise that changes everything.

Rachel Zegler: Oh my god, look at your beautiful face. Where are you?
Whitney Peak: I’m in Vancouver. Let me tell you, this three-hour time difference…

RZ: That’ll do it. Are you working?
WP: No, I’m just here visiting my family for a little bit, and then I come back to New York tomorrow. How ridiculous is it that this is the first time that we’re meeting each other properly?

RZ: It’s a weird thing – I’ve been watching you and am so happy for you. I’m so thrilled to get to talk to you about anything and everything. You just came off a crazy year – you’re a face of Chanel, you shot a Hunger Games film, you have 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank coming out. What’s grounding you right now? Because you’ve done a lot.
WP: I think being home. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed. Especially with The Hunger Games and just how big that world is. The second you step into it, there’s a very significant shift that happens. Obviously it was great and so exciting, but I just needed to go home and be in my city and feel like I’m – I don’t know – fourteen again. Be with my family, bicker with my siblings, you know.

RZ: Absolutely. That’s very real, and I feel very similar.
WP: Where did you grow up?

RZ: I grew up in New Jersey. So they’re like 30 minutes away on a good traffic day, which is very nice. My dad works in Manhattan, so when I want to see him during the day I can just go to his office and, like, bother him.
WP: So convenient, just throw things at his head. [laughs]

RZ: And like, he has to take it. [both laugh] OK, people want to know. It’s Sunrise on the Reaping this year. First of all, most importantly because this is about me, I’m so excited. [both laugh]
WP: Absolutely, it totally is. [both laugh] I don’t think I’ve had a conversation with anybody where you haven’t come up, like, every single time I talk about this job.

RZ: It’s such a thing. I’m sure you’ve felt this as well, because you and I have very… I don’t want to say similar career trajectory, because obviously we’ve done different things. But you and I have both done reboots of very beloved things, and things that people are very precious about. Obviously you did Gossip Girl, and that’s a world in and of itself. You’re two years younger than me?
WP: Yes, I’m 22.

RZ: I’m 24 – urgh. [both laugh] I feel like everyone growing up was watching Gossip Girl. You stepped into that world, and now you’re part of one of the most beloved film franchises. How do you approach that in a way that diffuses pressure and expectation? Or do you at all?
WP: I’ve actually been thinking about this. I don’t really have a big-picture mindset. I was like, this is a really awesome opportunity, celebrated it, did the work, showed up, made the movie, tried to have the best time I could have, and then tried not to think about how it was going to possibly affect or change my life. Because obviously with your friends, when we get jobs like this, it’s immediately like, “Oh my god, this is gonna happen. This is gonna happen. This is gonna happen!” That’s overwhelming to even consider, because, I don’t know, I quite like my life. You know what I mean? I’ve been able to do my job and still get to be messy, make mistakes, be young in New York and a little reckless. It’s been great. So I don’t really want to start living with a voice in the back of my head. How did that change for you? I’m really curious to know because I don’t personally know a lot of people who’ve had a shift so big.

“I’ve seen Jen’s interviews and her talking about what it was like at that time. I don’t think I’ve ever really admitted that out loud before, like, how scary that really is.”

RZ: I remember, my process for Hunger Games was so quick. It was a phone call with Francis Lawrence [director], then I was on a chem-read Zoom with Tom [Blyth], and then I got the part that night, and it was like, “Whoa.” All of a sudden
you’re like, the face of this. It’s such a cliché when it’s like, “You’re joining the family,” but that set actually is.
WP: Everyone knows each other and has worked with each other multiple times. It was such a great set. I was really nervous because I came in probably two months after they had started filming. With some sets, once the routine has been established, it’s really intimidating to walk in and your first day is everybody else’s, I don’t know, 65th day, right? You’re on completely different pages. Francis and Joseph [Zada] and everyone who there kind of held my hand through it, and was just very welcoming. It felt very warm. Eventually, after I got out of my own head and dispersed the nerves a little bit, I was able to actually look at it for what it was. It was really, really cool.

RZ: Genuinely, these people have been together since Catching Fire. In Hawaii, they were fighting off animals and bugs. [laughs]
WP: Just to see the crew interact. Because obviously this cast was huge – so many different ages and personalities from all over the world. Watching how they interacted was really interesting. It was very, very special.

RZ: And was it ever just one of those things where you were like, “I’m in a movie with Ralph Fiennes, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close…”
WP: Totally. Rachel!

RZ: I didn’t talk to Viola [Davis]!
WP: I couldn’t – I couldn’t. I was going to ask you about that.

RZ: We never had scenes together, but we met at an airport lounge months later. Francis was pissed at me, he was like, “Go say hi, she’s super nice.” I was like, “I’m sure she is. But I can’t do that.” [both laugh]
WP: When people ask me who is the one person that if I met, I’d completely unravel. It’s Viola Davis. I cannot. I’m such a fan. It actually happened with someone recently: I met Carrie Mae Weems at a Chanel event at the Frick and I started crying. I had to walk away because I was so emotional. You know what I mean? It’s those people who have paved the way for us so much, and in ways that they may not even understand or be aware of, but they’ve opened so many doors for us. There’s an energy that they give. Just being in the same room, looking at each other, sharing a moment. That’s probably the only time I’ve been so deeply affected by meeting someone whose work I greatly admire. Then on this set, everybody was staying at the same place and I would just sort of, like, run into people. The first time that we saw Glenn’s make-up… Rachel, I was sitting in hair and make-up, I’m getting my hair done, and then behind me, Glenn Close is getting her make-up done and then taken off – they’re testing the face. She just pulls up and stands next to me and is like, “What’s up?” And we had a chat. She was showing me her wigs and her looks. I was so excited about it. I was like, “Oh my god.” For her to set that standard and just be like, “Come, let’s talk, let’s get to know each other.”

“People underestimate just how hard that transition is for young women, and for young women of colour. It’s a different ball game.”

RZ: It’s a testament to how cool it is to be a part of those movies. You have people like her, Viola, Peter Dinklage, and Jesse Plemons saying yes to being involved.
WP: Obviously the books are great. Suzanne [Collins, author] has created such a specific, beautiful, and emotional world. But I have to say, I think Francis is just such a G. Like, that’s my dog, for real. [both laugh]

RZ: Genuinely. And he’s so nonchalant about how brilliant he is. Like, he is a really brilliant person, brilliant director, so smart and intuitive. He’s the reason these movies shine.
WP: He also knows what he wants and knows when he gets it. He’s very attuned.

RZ: It makes you understand why they won’t do it without each other. He’s like, I won’t do it unless Suzanne’s writing it. Suzanne won’t want a movie made unless it’s Nina [Jacobson, producer] and Francis. “We’re not messing with the formula and this is why this works.” I’m so happy. And you have made a habit now of working with legends. With 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank, you worked with my really good friends Talia Ryder and Jack Dylan Grazer.
WP: Yes, yes, yes.

RZ: I’m sorry. Everyone’s gonna say, “What a nerd,” when I say this, but, like, I’m so sorry – your cinematographer…
WP: I know! I know! [both laugh] I was hoping that’s what you were going to say. Mr. Richardson – the legend, the one and only.

RZ: Robert Richardson, who, A, has the best head of hair in the industry.
WP: Yo, big time. Best head of hair.

RZ: Best head of hair. And that man did Casino. That man is the cinematographer for one of the greatest movies of all time – Ca-si-no.
WP: There’s no way to be chill about that. Like, there’s actually no chill.

RZ: How do you walk onto set knowing that that is the person who’s orchestrating so much of what people are going to see?
WP: You walk in – first of all – shaking and quaking and sweating from every place on your body. Then you start working, and you’re like, “Oh, guys, this movie is gonna be fine.” He just knows. Watching someone like that move through a set, it should be studied. Honestly, I was very intimidated and very much watching from the back. He would just walk up to Frankie [Shaw, director] and be like, “This is what you can get. This is what you can’t have. This is what we should do.” It just comes so naturally to him. And he’s such a chiller. He was just like, “Yeah, man, let’s make a movie.” And that was the vibe of the set. All of us were obviously freaking out about it. And then Liam Neeson’s in it.

RZ: Which is just… I’m the biggest Star Wars nerd, so I would have just been like, that’s Qui-Gon Jinn, bro! [both laugh]
WP: It was a very surreal experience. I obviously wasn’t alive in the 90s, but the energy in the air on set felt like we were back in the 90s shooting a movie in, like, 21 days or something.

RZ: Where were you?
WP: We were in Ireland – Dublin, Wicklow and Limerick. It was the winter and it was freezing, [but] Dublin is such a fun city, you can’t really complain shooting there. Frankie was so sick and gave me some really great advice. She was an actor, so she knows how to talk to actors and make us understand what she wants. A lot of it was off-the-cuff.

RZ: Do you prefer that when you’re making movies? Do you prefer a rehearsed situation, or are you more like, let’s shoot and see what happens?
WP: I think it depends on the job. I don’t particularly have a specific, single process that I stick to every time. I do think for that movie it was important, because there’s so much improv, and so much rewriting was done in rehearsals. We really got to take charge of our characters and stand up for them. Frankie was very receptive to making changes or hearing us out. That was very important because we were able to kind of take over the scenes. But I don’t know if that applies to every job.

RZ: One thing that I really loved about working with Steven Spielberg is he films rehearsals. Like, he films everything. He just loves film. He wants everything unfiltered. There are full scenes, sequences and cuts in West Side Story that are completely like, “Let’s just rehearse and we’ll film the rehearsal in case anything good is in it.” So it definitely does depend on the set, and on the situation and the type of movie you’re making. How would you classify 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank? Was it funny?
Whitney: Oh, yeah. Jack, Talia, and Spike [Fearn] – there was no way this wasn’t going to be a comedy. It’s sort of like a 90s drama-heist movie, but it was really hilarious. Rosie O’Donnell is in the movie, she’s obviously brilliant and quick. I found that quite challenging because I’ve never done a comedy, or I’ve never tapped into that genre before. It was hilarious. Jack is so quick and sharp and witty.

RZ: You can’t predict what’s going to come out of that kid’s mouth.
WP: Completely unpredictable. And so free on a set. If you let him go, he will go and go and go. We all fed off each other in a big way, even hanging out off set. It was so great to watch and to work with them.

RZ I love it. I really pride myself on not breaking on set when things are funny, but with Jack Dylan Grazer – every single take. What do you want to do next? It’s such a broad question, and I always go [makes urgh noise] when people ask. But even if the answer has nothing to do with work, what are you looking forward to?
WP: Honestly, coming home for a bit. I haven’t really been back in Vancouver properly since I moved to New York, only for a week or two at a time. But so much of my developing and growing was done in New York, and part of that was through the industry and being an actor and was very much attached to my career. The friends that I made there and the community that I built has been such a cornerstone in my life and has helped me stay grounded when I couldn’t come home. It made everything feel a little less daunting. I feel like with the year that I have coming in terms of press and stuff coming out, I’m trying to take a bit of space to calm down before I have to really be in the mix of it. I don’t know how you find it, but I’m not a good celebrity, if you know what I mean? I never know what to say in press and interviews.

“There’s a fine line of wanting to maintain privacy
for your own life, and how much of your personality you keep for yourself.”

RZ: Because you’re a real person, and you grew up out of the public eye. People underestimate just how hard that transition is for young women, and for young women of colour. It’s a different ball game. You’ve taken your first steps into a brand new world, and I know that you’re going to be OK because of the way you speak about your work. You have a really good head on your shoulders. It’s really hard, and there are going to be a lot of people in your corner, and that’s what you need to focus on, because so many of us have had a hard time. Jen Lawrence had a hard time…
WP: I’m crying.

RZ: Oh no, don’t cry. I’ll cry too to make you feel less lonely about crying. [both laugh]
WP: It is really a lot. It’s really scary. And you’re totally right, I’ve seen Jen’s interviews and her talking about what it was like at that time. I don’t think I’ve ever really admitted that out loud before, like, how scary that really is.

RZ: It is scary. But there’s a long line of really incredible women who have been in your position and are able to look back and offer a really amazing perspective that they’ve learned over time. Or people who are going through it in real time and are able to start a conversation into why we treat people the way that we do when they’re up for public consumption. You have to remember that the court of public opinion, generally, is just noise. I know that you’re going to be just fine, and I am here for you, and I feel very lucky that Jen was there for me, and so we’ve just got to take care of each other. You’re going to be taken care of by those who have experienced. None of us have had the same experience, but we have had an experience that we can all relate to.
WP: I really appreciate that. This was really awesome.

Interview originally published in Heroine 24.

hair NAEEMAH LAFOND at THE WALL GROUP;
make-up TYRON MACHAUSEN at THE WALL GROUP;
lighting director CLAY HOWARD SMITH; digital tech ANTHONY MILLER; lighting assistant RUFUS BARKLEY;
fashion assistant JODY BAIN; production ANDREW CHUNG and APRIL ELLIS