Topics: Disney, Rachel Zegler, Celebrity, Film and TV, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Since her casting announcement as Snow White in Disney's live-action remake, Rachel Zegler has dealt with a lot of backlash.
The actor faced an initial wave of racist remarks upon her casting announcement in 2021, as some baselessly declared that her Colombian heritage made her unfit to play the titular role.
The next year, Zegler faced another swarm of backlash after she criticized the original 1937 animated film, describing it as 'weird' for focusing on Snow White's love story with a prince who 'literally stalks her'.
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"There's a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her," the star told Extra at the time. "Weird. So we didn't do that this time."
In a recent profile with Variety, Zegler opened up on the brazen hate she's had to deal with over the past few years and her disappointment in her comments on the original movie being misconstrued.
"In all honesty, it made me sad that it was taken in such a way, because I believe that women can do anything. But I also believe that they can do everything," the actor told the outlet, reiterating that Snow White can have love and romance, but can also have other goals too.
"I would never want to box someone in and say, 'If you want love, then you can't work.' Or 'If you want to work, then you can't have a family.' It's not true. It's never been true. It can be very upsetting when things get taken out of context or jokes don't land," she explained.
"The love story [in Snow White] is very integral. A lot of people wrote that we weren't doing [that storyline] anymore - we were always doing that; it just wasn't what we were talking about on that day."
She went on to explain that the willful misconstruction of her words is part of a larger culture that's excessively critical of women in the public eye.
"I've watched women get torn down my whole life, my whole career," Zegler said.
"We'll watch it in the election that's upcoming. We're gonna witness that for a long time, I fear. Sometimes it can feel like we're going back; it certainly felt that way when that was happening," she said in reference to the wave of hate she got in 2022.
Zegler proceeded to double down on the importance of not giving in to the hate saying: "I don't like to give them the satisfaction of knowing they hurt me in the moment."
"You give them a lot of power by taking a social media break," she added.
The actor went on to address the hostile reaction toward Disney casting a woman of Colombian heritage as Snow White, saying she doesn't bother trying to understand the anger of what Variety described as 'die-hard Disney adults' and noting how she remembers watching the 1997 version of Cinderella starring Whitney Houston and Brandy as the titular princess.
"I grew up in a house where that was Cinderella. Obviously, we watched the cartoon. But a child's mind is the most amazing thing, where it's just like, 'OK, that's Cinderella'," Zegler said.
"But the blond-haired, blue-eyed, blue-dress Cinderella from the 1950s cartoon is also Cinderella. Also, Hilary Duff is Cinderella in A Cinderella Story.
"I was able to comprehend those things at a young age."
Disney's live-action Snow White releases in theaters in March 2025.
