Rachel Zegler faces criticism for comments she made last year while preparing to star in Disney’s remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Hollywood actress Rachel Zegler has come under fire for comments she made last year as she prepares to star in Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Zegler, who is best known for her role in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, is playing the Disney princess in the upcoming movie. It has already sparked backlash for its feminist take on the original 1937 animated film.

The casting of the 2024 film received backlash over the choice of Zegler, who is of Colombian and Polish descent. There was also the fact that seven dwarfs will be played by only one actor with dwarfism and six others of different ethnicities and body types.

Rachel Zegler Snow White Backlash

Videos have resurfaced of Zegler speaking about the role in 2022, and her comments have angered some Disney fans. The backlash comes about a week after she was under fire for her comments at the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) picket line.

The actors’ union decided its 160,000 members would go on strike after negotiations broke down with members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). This consists of the major Hollywood studios of Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros., NBC Universal, Sony and Paramount.

SAG-AFTRA joined members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) who have been striking for the past two months. They are taking action over AMPTP’s refusal to rule out artificial intelligence one day replacing human workers, and over actors’ and screenwriters’ salaries not correlating with the billions of streams that shows and films now often draw.

Zegler said at the protests last week: “If I’m gonna stand there 18 hours a day in the dress of an iconic Disney princess, I deserve to be paid for every hour that it’s streamed online.”

Zegler was criticized for making the comments, despite earning more than other crew would on a film set. However, the actress acknowledged her privilege and said she was speaking for all people who worked in film and TV.

“Fellas is it woke to wanna be fairly compensated,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in response to the backlash.

rachel zegler
Rachel Zegler attends a SAG-AFTRA rally in Times Square on July 25, 2023 in New York City. She has come under fire for her comments about the strikes and also her role as Snow White…  Cindy Ord/Getty Images North America
Zegler later added: “my point is: hard work is getting done… hard work is being seen. the people who are doing the hard work deserve to be compensated for the work that is being done as well as the amount of times it is being viewed.

“it is not a hard concept to grasp. i don’t know why everybody hates me for saying it,” she added.

Newsweek contacted Zegler’s representatives by email for comment.

But those angry at the star dug up some interviews she did during Disney’s D23 expo at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California, in September 2022.

In one interview, Zegler said she had watched Snow White only once growing up because the movie scared her when she was younger, while her co-star Gal Gadot described the titular character as more “proactive” in the reboot. Some fans interpreted this as meaning the original Snow White was weak. Others also took offence at Zegler’s description of the Prince in the story as someone who stalks the princess in a separate interview.

“It just gets worse and worse…. The new Snow White says that the Prince was a creepy stalker and suggests that all scenes of the Prince could be cut. She’s a walking PR disaster for Disney,” wrote one person on X.

Another added: “Rachel Zegler admitting she didn’t like Snow White growing up, saying she had only watched it ONCE before getting the role is so sad to me. Out of MILLIONS of women who loved the character, care about the story and yet this is who we get.”

Another person backed Zegler: “The idea that you have to be a hardcore fan of Snow White to play that role is BIZARRE. There’s not decades of SNOW WHITE LORE to catch up on or anything. Snow White didn’t ‘get you through your 20s.’ It’s a goddamn folk tale, dummy.”

Others also defended Zegler’s comments about the SAG-AFTRA strikes and also slammed those who were not happy with the feminist approach to the live-action remake.

“Rachel zegler got cast in Snow White before any of her movies came out, she likely was paid relatively little upfront. It is not ridiculous of her to ask for streaming profit participation because Disney will be profiting off of her minimal salary performance for decades to come,” wrote one person on X.

Another pointed out the Prince’s scenes in the original film only amounted to five minutes of screen time.

They wrote on X: “just so you know, the love story you’re all livid about being ‘removed’ from the new snow white, takes up FIVE MINUTES OF SCREEN TIME.”

Others are defending Zegler for using her platform to speak up and accused the haters of sexism, comparing her to Marvel star Brie Larson, who has faced ongoing misogynistic trolling after being cast as Captain Marvel.

“Y’all swore up and down that we would never let the hate that Brie Larson got happen to another actress and here we are again with you LOSERS bashing Rachel zegler for asking for fair pay and wanting to play Snow White as a more proactive heroine…. I’m done,” posted one user on X.

Another added: “rachel zegler loves being snow white. – i dont know how her being afraid of it as a child is bad – she has never called snow white weak, she just said her version was proactive. the opposite of ‘proactive’ is passive (which snow white is), and passive ≠ weak.”

A third wrote on X: “miss rachel zegler should not be in such hot water over saying snow white wasn’t ahead of it’s time (true), it wasn’t a childhood favorite of hers (honest), and the remake is going to attempt more feminism (something i think ALL of the other live-action princesses have said??)”

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