First, it was Amber Heard, then Blake Lively, then Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber — now, Rachel Zegler has claimed the spot of the most hated woman on the internet. “Snow White,” Disney and Rachel Zegler is a conversation that just doesn’t seem to end. But where did this controversy come from? It’s a long, complicated history, so I’ll fill you in.
The live-action remake of Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was announced nearly a decade ago in October 2016, and since then, it has been involved in a whirlwind of controversy. Zegler has been facing backlash in connection with the movie since her casting as Snow White was announced in June 2021, when fans scrutinized the actress’s appearance and ethnicity.
From then on, the film has seemed almost cursed with controversy left and right, a writers’ strike, co-star drama, COVID-19 setbacks and a literal fire on set. But despite all of this, the movie finally hitting theaters on Mar. 21 didn’t slow down the distaste for the film — instead, it shifted to one star in particular: Rachel Zegler.
Short clips of Zegler have been resurfacing on the internet in light of her big performance, and the responses have been nothing short of hateful and chaotic. It all started when the outspoken actress called the film’s original 1937 version “weird” and announced that the live-action remake would take a “different approach.”
“There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her … weird, so we didn’t do that this time.” She added that the new version is “really not about the love story at all” but focuses on Snow White’s “inner journey that she goes on to find her true self,” Zegler said in a red-carpet interview.
Of course, this sparked rage from Disney’s die-hard fans, who riot for the original versions, no matter how outdated they may be — and yes, we should all agree that something that was created nearly one hundred years ago IS outdated. We’ve come a long way since then … right?
But the last straw for both Disney and viewers alike seemed to be when Zegler threw her political views into the mix, expressing her solidarity with Palestine in the wake of the war in Gaza. She wrote in a thread of tweets related to the film’s development, “and always remember, free palestine.”
This prompted “Snow White” producer Marc Platt to fly out to New York and talk to Zegler about the ramifications of her tweets on political issues. However, Zegler stood her ground, not deleting the post.
Over a year later, in an interview with Cosmopolitan, Zegler details the harassment that followed with her statement. “There was a lot of harassment from a certain group of people — they were showing up at my apartment and screaming profanities,” she said.
Disney then hired a “social media guru” to vet all of Zegler’s posts after she spoke against Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection. According to Vanity Fair, “the studio viewed her as a liability — and a costly one at that.”
By the time the film premiered, Disney was already separating itself from the actress. The “Snow White” premiere was an afternoon event that was closed to the press. Meanwhile, the live-action remake tanked at the box office, only earning $43 million domestically and $87 million globally on its opening weekend. This may seem like big bucks, but keep in mind that the film cost at least $350 million to make and market.
So, of course, both insiders and fans are scrambling to point fingers at Zegler for the film’s quick demise. Even the son of the director, Jonah Platt, joined in on the discourse. “Her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office … Tens of thousands of people worked on that film, and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires … Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged,” Platt wrote in a now-deleted Instagram comment.
Frankly, I believe that Disney made yet another remake that nobody asked for and, therefore, is using Zegler as a scapegoat for their failure and shortcomings. The live-action movie was controversial when it was brought to discussion in 2016 — what made them think it would be welcomed nearly ten years later? Did they expect Zegler to be as one-dimensional as the original “Snow White” and have no thoughts or opinions of her own?
I understand that “taking a side” has its repercussions, but I’m not watching a movie based on the political viewpoints of the cast, and I highly doubt that their audience is, either. Either way, it seems like Zegler was the catalyst in the downfall of a film that should never have been made — after all, some things are just better as animations.
