One Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Star Broke The Internet With His Muscles, And Rachel Zegler’s Response Is A+

Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird in Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
(Image credit: Lionsgate)

As the recently-released The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes becomes one of the hit 2023 movies of the fall season, many of its young stars are racking up the fans. After the movie’s Coriolanus Snow, Tom Blyth, went viral for reacting to online thirst edits, Josh Andrés Rivera is having his own big moment online with the release of a photoshoot that seriously shows off his arm muscles. That led to Rachel Zegler weighing in. 

Josh Andrés Rivera, who plays Sejanus Plinth in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, has just entered into heartthrob status after these photos from Interview Magazine surfaced online. Check it:  

Rivera posed in a semi-sheer black suit and swung around a sledgehammer for the magazine, and it got a lot of people talking. Rachel Zegler, who not only stars in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with the actor, but worked with him as part of the West Side Story cast and is his girlfriend, reacted as such on Twitter:  

Alex play 'My Man' … who is Alex. Alexa. I meant Alexa. Sorry he’s hot.

Zegler stayed on brand with her Broadway roots by referencing “My Man” from 1968’s Funny Girl while sharing the photos of her boyfriend showing off his big muscles. After making a typo by writing “Alex” rather than “Alexa,” Zegler corrected herself before saying “Sorry he’s hot.” Clearly Zegler is getting flustered at her own boyfriend’s viral photoshoot, but she’s sharing that reaction with a ton of people on Twitter. Check out some of the other Twitter reactions

  • “i understand u now miss rachel zegler”
  • “rachel zegler is on this app so i can’t say what i’m thinking”
  • “Sister Rachel I am SORRY but your man is SO FINE oh my god”
  • “Rachel Zegler I’m just saying if you really love me you would sharem”
  • “i love everyone who made every decision involved with this shoot thank you for your service”
  • “everyone’s talking about tom blyth, but he’s the hottest guy in the new hunger games movie”

As Rivera gets his own moment in the spotlight, fans are starting to understand the sex appeal of Zegler’s boyfriend of over two years. Check out this sweet social media post about Rivera that Zegler posted when they celebrated their anniversary last month: 

The actor found his first major leading role in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes as a Capitol citizen and close friend to Snow who turns on Panem’s laws. When CinemaBlend attended the Hunger Games prequel’s press conference, Rivera and Tom Blyth told stories about working together, including the time Rivera basically saved his co-star’s life. 

You can check out Rivera and Zegler in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which just won the box office weekend for a second week straight against Napoleon, Wish, Trolls Band Together and so forth. 

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Sarah El-Mahmoud
Staff Writer

Sarah El-Mahmoud has been with CinemaBlend since 2018 after graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a degree in Journalism. In college, she was the Managing Editor of the award-winning college paper, The Daily Titan, where she specialized in writing/editing long-form features, profiles and arts & entertainment coverage, including her first run-in with movie reporting, with a phone interview with Guillermo del Toro for Best Picture winner, The Shape of Water. Now she's into covering YA television and movies, and plenty of horror. Word webslinger. All her writing should be read in Sarah Connor’s Terminator 2 voice over.