look i’m not gonna watch the new snow white movie. i’m not interested in disney’s “live action” remakes / cash grabs, and from the ads i’ve been getting this one looks particularly bad.

that being said, i do not understand the Hate rachel zegler gets.

“she doesn’t look like snow white!”

okay? don’t watch the movie. same thing happened when halle bailey was cast as ariel - the racists come out of the woodworks. “but her name is snow white! her skin is supposed to be white!!!” yeah, in the og disney movie she has ‘skin as white as snow’. and in the new version she was born in a snowstorm. there. that explains her name. “but it’s not like in the original!!!” yes. this is a different movie. if you truly have a problem that an actor doesn’t look exactly like a drawing, take it up with the casting director and producers.

if you seriously cannot get past the lead actress’ skin being slightly darker then the original - there are many other snow white adaptations you could watch instead that do have lead actresses with white skin. hopefully any version of snow white can have more going on then just her skin.

“What irks me is how easy [people of colour] actors become targets for backlash on social media and yet the culture of silence from studios, news outlets and social media platforms says it all… That lack of public protection… means the toxicity continues to fester and rise. It’s the Wild West out there and I can’t see it getting better when this has been normalised to such an extent.” - film critic Kelechi Ehenulo

“her hair and costume are awful!”

yeah it looks pretty bad. not rachel zegler’s fault. go be mad at costume designer sandy powell. or hair stylist julio parodi. wig maker samuel james. hair and makeup supervisor ellen d'andrade brown. producers russell allen, ben howarth, jarden leboff, callum mcdougall, marc platt, etc etc. did i have to look those names up? yes. it took two seconds on imdb. you could also just say: 'what was the costume designer thinking? who did the hair? what were the producers on?’ you realise that an actor has very little say in what they wear and look like in a role, unless they’re a household name right.

side note: why is such a “girlboss” movie produced by all men??

“she made fun of the original snow white movie!”

her comments last year were kind of tactless. she also wasn’t wrong though. as an adult i am a fan of the original snow white movie - the animation, the music, the ingenuity. snow white is a very sweet character. as a kid? didn’t like the movie. snow white was boring. all she did was sing about a guy she didn’t know and clean. i can understand why they’d change that for a modern audience. could she have worded it better, yes. but like she said “it’s no longer 1937”

in the original movie snow white is a demure, sweet, timid, 14 year old who fits into the role of a 1930s housewife - cooking and cleaning and never being angry. if they remade the movie exactly as it was today it would not have worked, there are parts that are extremely outdated. snow white was the blueprint for the future disney princesses, yes, she’s kind and animals flock to her and she wants true love. but you can keep those key character traits and modernise the character as well.
there is also very little romance in the original movie. the prince is more an archetype then a character. they barely interact. they hear each other singing and are instantly in love. okay, that works for a film from over 80 years ago, but like the 2015 remake of cinderella gave the prince a larger role and had the characters connect more, obviously that should also happen in a 2025 remake of snow white.
also yeah, it doesn’t make sense that snow white is a princess and the evil queen has taken over her castle/kingdom - but in the end snow white just goes back to the prince’s kingdom. what about hers? the evil queen is dead! once again - this works for the simple fairytale that was focused more on bringing animation to life in a feature length film for the first time, but for a modern adaptation i can see how they needed to change/add things in.

but you know what? all of that was decided by the WRITERS DIRECTORS AND PRODUCERS. that version of snow white and the movie was already greenlit and in production BEFORE rachel zegler ever came on scene.

“why does snow white have to be a leader? that’s stupid!”

also already decided by the writers directors and producers - but that’s also the way that every adaptation of snow white in the 21st century has gone?? once upon a time, snow white and the red shoes, snow white and the huntsman, mirror mirror - they all did that too. this is not the first time someone’s gone 'hey snow white’s a princess. her kingdom was taken over by the evil queen. let’s have her take it back’

“why does every fairytale movie have to be about girlbosses now?”

i don’t know. i’m tired of it too. but sexism comes in many shapes and forms. if female characters are feminine they’re weak. if female characters are fighters or leaders they’re pandering. if female characters wear pants they’re too… masculine??? once again the direction the movie took was not up to rachel zegler, and she is also not responsible for a misogynistic society.

“she made fun of the romance!”

rachel made a joke that the original prince stalks snow white and people acted like she’d kicked a puppy but… hasn’t that been a joke for a while now? that he just kissed this random girl in the woods? people were also up in arms about the 'nonconsensual kiss’ comment and how “everything’s too woke now” but idk. there wasn’t even a kiss in the original fairytale. the 'controversy’ of the kiss has existed for a while - there was all that fuss four years ago about the disneyland ride. i think the romance between snow and the prince could definitely be expanded upon, but yeah she also has a lot going on outside of the romance so it doesn’t have to be her main story. also anyone who says things are “too woke” tend to be the same kind of people that freak out about Wicked having witches in it, or boycotting cinemas because Beauty and the Beast had disney’s 50th first gay character in it. so they’re gonna be mad about anything.

“she doesn’t act like a disney princess, she’s too aggressive”

yikes. an actor does not have to be in character 24/7. as out there as this sounds, an actor is not their character they are Acting.

also a latina woman having opinions is not 'aggressive’ and the people saying this sound racist as hell (and probably are racist, it’s a pretty good indicator).

not to mention that she’s kind to fans and interviewers, passionate about her projects, seems to be adored by children, her coworkers generally seem to get along great with her (and if they don’t has anyone ever gotten along with everyone they’ve ever worked with??), she’s even thoughtful about the people who disagreed with her about her opinions on the original snow white movie.

“she’s too political”

she’s a person. not a prop. she’s allowed to be political.

also her 'politics’ included being angry that her reproductive rights were taken away and being mad at people who voted for that. which… she is allowed to be.

she also supports freeing palestine. something that makes rich, genocide-supporting people very very angry. when she tweeted 'free palestine’ on her personal account producer mark platt flew across the country to try and reprimand, guilt and bully her into taking the tweet down. she refused. platt’s adult son then went on a rant online about her 'immaturity’. because apparently women having their own thoughts is 'narcissistic’

the idea that it’s rachel zegler’s tweets that are affecting the box office - and not disney’s own writing, directing and visuals that is affecting sales is laughable. disney trying to make the 23 year old lead actress the scapegoat for all of their terrible decisions regarding this movie because she is standing up for a cause that doesn’t make them money is disgusting.

“Ultimately, [Zegler] became a lightning rod for controversy, not just due to her own actions, but because Snow White landed at the intersection of Hollywood’s creative stagnation, racial politics, international conflict, and America’s deep ideological divide,” - film critic Conor Riley

“she’s too cringe”

do you even hear yourself. seriously. seriously?

extreme hate on young female celebrities is unfortunately nothing new. it seems to be a recurring theme (Anne Hathaway or Brittany Spears for example) and then years later everyone goes 'hey, that was fucked up. we shouldn’t have done that’ only to repeat on someone else.

extreme hate on poc in lead roles by racists is also unfortunately nothing new. disney doing nothing is also unfortunately nothing new (i’ve mentioned Halle Bailey but there’s also John Boyega and Amandla Stenberg for example).

both these things are incredibly fucked up and absolutely contribute to the hate rachel zegler has recieved.

zegler’s political opinions (that we live in a world where 'stop killing innocent people’ is a political opinion makes me want to curl into a ball and never get up) not aligning with disney, trying to control what she can say, blaming her for the movie’s commerical failures and essentially throwing her to the wolves is a specific brand of fucked up.

i am not even a huge fan of rachel zegler. before all this media controversy happened i barely thought about her. the only thing i’ve seen her in was the ballad of songbirds and snakes - and she was great in that and i listened to the soundtrack on repeat. but after all this nonsense i truly admire her. as an actor, a singer, and as a person. no one is perfect, but she is trying to use her platform to make a difference. i hope she is getting help for her mental health in regards to all of this.