Rachel Zegler has faced a wave of criticism surrounding her role in the Marc Webb-directed remake of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ since the announcement of her casting in 2021. She discussed the scale of the backlash in a recent interview with Cosmopolitan.
“For being brown, for having brown skin, for playing Snow White. There was a lot of harassment from a certain group of people—they were showing up at my apartment and screaming profanities,” the actress revealed.
“Where I wanted to, in a way that made it seem like it was tongue in cheek. Then it got to a point where it was not funny anymore, and I really hated myself for something that other people were telling me about myself. But my ability to bounce back from that and still be passionate about the work I did for that project is something that I admire about myself.”
Fans of the 1937 animation criticized Disney’s choice to cast a Colombian actress in the role of Snow White, arguing that the character’s name referred to her fair skin. But Zegler noted that her version in the live-action remake got the name as a reminder of her survival through a snowstorm as a baby.
Besides her ethnicity, talks about Zegler’s comments on the changes made to the original feature caused discussions online. The actress revealed that Snow White’s personality changed in the remake to make her more independent and the prince’s role was reduced.
The movie faced additional controversy for replacing the traditional Dwarfs with various magical creatures, played by mostly regular-sized actors. The reactions eventually led to rearrangements to include CGI Dwarves.
The teaser trailer for ‘Snow White’ quickly became the most disliked teaser on YouTube last summer. With the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike also getting in the way, the release date got delayed a year to March 21, 2025.
