Rachel Zegler explains why she’s ‘thankful’ for Snow White backlash

Rachel Zegler has addressed the backlash she received for her comments on Snow White and reflected on how she dealt with it.

Rachel Zegler is quickly getting used to backlash from film fans and has spoken about how she deals with it in a recent interview.

Speaking to Variety, she insisted she was thankful for the backlash she received regarding her upcoming role as Snow White in the Disney live-action remake.

But let’s first look back at what caused the backlash in the first place.

In October this year, news broke that Disney was pushing back the release of the Snow White film to 2025, when it was initially scheduled for a March 2024 release.

While it was not made clear as to the reason for the delay, many fans indicated it was due to the backlash the film and its lead star were facing.

In an interview with Extra TV, Zegler reflected on the original 1937 plot as focusing on a love story 'with a guy who literally stalks' Snow White, calling the movie 'weird'.

"I just mean that it's no longer 1937. She's not going to be saved by the prince and she's not going to be dreaming about true love," she added.

Her comments were not well received by fans, however, with many insisting they would boycott the movie and questioned why the lead actor seemingly was not a fan of the source material.

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Speaking to Variety, alongside actor Halle Bailey, who faced backlash herself after it was announced she would be playing Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, Zegler discussed the feedback from fans.

She said: “I feel so thankful for those moments because it started to make me feel like solid Teflon.

“That nothing can hurt anymore because they’ve said the worst that can be said. You just say, “Thank you so much for this. I have a lot of love in my life, and I’m very thankful.” We get to do our work and have that speak for itself instead.”

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With that being said, she did admit she wanted to hit back at some of her critics, but was aware that in some situations it would simply fuel the fire.

“Choosing thankfulness and gratefulness is choosing peace. As much as you’d like to remind people verbally that being in the spotlight doesn’t absolve you of your humanity — that you’re allowed to have human moments — it doesn’t necessarily do what you want it to do. It fuels them more,” she said.

Essentially, Zegler indicated she wanted her critics to consider being a little bit kinder, a statement a lot of us can get behind.