The Backlash to Rachel Zegler’s ‘Snow White’ Is Out of Control

Rachel Zegler can’t catch a break. After the internet resurfaced old comments the West Side Story actress made about her upcoming live-action reboot of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, Zegler has been embroiled in an unexpected, confusing controversy.

Since Zegler’s casting as the Disney princess was first announced in June 2021, she’s faced criticism from judgmental commentators. First, she received a bit of backlash surrounding the fact that Snow White would be played by a Latina actress. Zegler shut these folks down. “We need to love [these critics] in the right direction,” she said in a January 2022 “Actors on Actors” interview in Variety. “At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess.”

Zegler already faced haters for playing a historically white character as a non-white person. But the current backlash stems from comments she made about Disney’s original Snow White film last fall. In an interview last September with Variety, Zegler stated that she wanted to update the character, who she plays in the film, for a modern audience. It’s “no longer 1937,” Zegler said, arguing that Snow White was “not going to be saved by the prince” in this iteration.

“She's not going to be dreaming about true love,” Zegler said. “She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave, and true."

Instead, Zegler said, Disney had reworked the princess’ romantic storyline into something more fit for a 2020s audience—and to make it “less weird” than what’s in the original.

“There's a big focus on her love story [in the original] with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird! So we didn't do that this time,” she said in an interview with Extra TV in September. “We have a different approach to what I'm sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie.”

In a December interview with Entertainment Weekly, Zegler talked about the Snow White cartoon again, saying that she used to be “scared of the original version.” She went on to say that the animated version didn’t “sound like something a little kid would like.”

Now, nearly a year later, the internet has dragged those comments back up for another discourse. Folks are suddenly enraged that Zegler said she wants to change the original film’s story, and some seem to think Zegler doesn’t even want to play Snow White. Because the actress said several negative things about Disney’s earlier Snow White film, critics believe she’s a bit of an ungrateful snob.

Though the backlash has made its way through Twitter and Reddit, most of the outcry stems from TikTok. One video, which features a compilation of these comments, has over 7 million views. “Why so smug?” the video creator posted in a text bubble alongside clips of Zegler’s now-controversial interviews.

“If you hate the original so much, why would you want to make the remake,” the caption for the video reads. “Pls make it make sense.” Most of the top comments aren’t critiques lodged against Zegler, per se, but they do disagree with her opinions about Snow White.

Another video that has garnered over a million views claims that Zegler “HATES” Snow White. “Disney found a way to cast somebody for Snow White whose entire personality on a marketing tour for the movie is, ‘I hate, hate Snow White,” the TikTokker says. “Her incredibly off-putting personality is not the only thing you’ll get out of Rachel Zegler while talking to her. She will remind you that she hates, hates Snow White.”

This is not the first time the actress has sparked an online debate over something she said. Zegler also received criticism earlier this year for statements she made about Shazam: Fury of the Gods, her first starring role following West Side Story. When asked why she joined the Shazam team, Zegler bluntly said, “I needed a job.”

Shazam fans weren’t too pleased with that answer, although some folks praised her for being honest. After the film was flooded with negative reviews—like ours—Zegler tried to shut all critics down. “Hey, our film is actually really good!” she later tweeted, trying to shut down widespread criticism of the film. “We have an 85% audience score for a reason.”

Perhaps her attempts to change people’s opinions of the film wasn’t a great look for the star, because it seemed disingenuous to try to discredit others’ opinions. Plus, those comments about simply needing a job made the critical pushback even more unfair. But that doesn’t mean Zegler deserves this flooding of hatred plastered all over social media.

In the wake of the backlash, Zegler has gone silent on her Twitter and Instagram, changing her profile picture and header images to plain black photos. She has only been retweeting and liking new posts on Twitter, as well as a few less wordy replies. She hasn’t made a new Instagram post in a week. Why would she be sharing new posts? Whenever Zegler tweets out a simple reply, trolls online reply with mean, irrelevant quips like, “Everyone hates you.”

Fans of Zegler—and even haters!—know that the actress rarely goes silent on social media. She speaks her mind online with little-to-no filter (which, inevitably, has gotten her into some issues—note the Shazam 2 incident above). For Zegler to have not posted in a week is a big deal.

Before seemingly toning down her social media use, Zegler made a pair of posts that seemed to reference the pile-on. “Remember to be kind,” Zegler shared on Twitter Aug. 11, around the time the backlash had hit a fever pitch. “Treat each other with patience and empathy. Remember that you are loved unconditionally, no matter your mistakes, no matter your misunderstandings.” The replies include people offering their support of her and telling her not to acknowledge the haters, although there is still some criticism.

Outraged Disney fans online have apparently mistaken Zegler’s interest in creating a more modern, politically correct version of Snow White with disrespect for the original film. But such an update shouldn’t be surprising; after all, the new Snow White is being co-written by Greta Gerwig, who just put a lovely feminist (if similarly controversial) spin on Barbie.

But at the same time, the backlash shouldn’t be surprising either. It doesn’t matter that, despite her opinion of the original Snow White, Zegler has also stated that she is “the biggest Disney fan” and that this role is “the biggest dream come true I could possibly imagine for myself.” A version of Snow White starring a young Latina and with a female empowerment message was bound to make certain people angry.

Others who are complaining about the unreleased film include conservatives, who are also outraged over Snow White’s alleged, progressive changes. In July, the production sparked backlash for leaked images of the new dwarves, which the Daily Mail called “politically correct companions.” Fox News and other conservative hellraisers were quick to blast the film because the new dwarves are “multi-racial, multi-gender and differ in height.” (To Fox News, this is a bad thing.)

Do Zegler’s comments about the love story and these photos mean that the story is going to change all that much? Who knows! The Snow White reboot isn’t set to release in theaters until March 24, 2024—and with the Screen Actors Guild strike, perhaps it’ll be pushed even further. We only know the cast and the fact that the film is at least loosely based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. No one has any information to confidently state what this movie is about, if it’s any good, or if it’s awful.

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Somehow, Zegler and the new Snow White have managed to tick off both Disney fans and anti-PC conservatives. Again: This movie has no trailer, Disney has revealed no specific plot details, and we’ve seen no official imagery. And yet, everyone is already mad at both the film and its star.

Zegler may have warranted a bit of pushback for her Shazam 2 comments, which devalued the opinions of critics and other naysayers. But this current onslaught of backlash doesn’t measure up to the tame comments Zegler has made in interviews promoting past or future films. If you go watch the interviews, note how excited Zegler is. She makes more ecstatic comments about filming the new movie than critical ones. This is an actress who loves Snow White, Disney, and the live-action film’s source material.

That said, Zegler’s not afraid to change the shape of Disney’s future for young women. The internet commentariat is starting to sound like the cantankerous Grumpy from the original film. And guess what? He ended up loving Snow White by the end of the movie. Folks might be apprehensive, but there’s no need to be a bully about a Disney film made for children—especially when no one’s seen it yet.

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