Rachel Zegler Talks About the Backlash She Has Faced and What She Wants Fans to Get Out of the New SNOW WHITE Remake

Rachel Zegler kicked off her career in 2021 as Maria in the iconic musical West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg. She went on to play a supervillain in DC’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods. She went on that year to appear in the Hunger Games sequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, and she will next be seen in the teen horror comedy Y2K, which will be out this December.

Her next two films will see the actress play a princess- first in Netflix’s animated original movie Spellbound; then in Disney’s live-action Snow White, which has seen some controversy. There have been many rumors and even confirmations about what will happen in this film, and some fans, or Disney purists, have been pushing back about it all since production.

During a recent interview with Variety, Zegler explained that her film creates an alternate history regarding the princess' name and said that she tries to just ignore the “fans” who were outspoken about a Latina actress playing Snow White.

"It fell back to another version of 'Snow White' that was told in history, where she survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby. And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience. One of the core points in our film for any young woman or young person is remembering how strong you actually are."

Zegler went on to say that the negative reaction to her being cast as Snow White comes down to basic misogyny and hatred.

"I've watched women get torn down my whole life, my whole career. 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." Still, she simply stays online when people are awful to her to maintain the power: "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."

Zegler received a lot of backlash when making the live-action film when she criticized the original Disney animated film, saying that director Marc Webb's take on the story will be a bit more enlightened as far as its female lead is concerned. Speaking to Extra TV during the 2022 D23 Expo, Zegler said the original movie features the prince basically stalking Snow White and called the whole thing "weird" while also noting that the entire focus is on Snow White's love story rather than her own personal development. This isn’t that outrageous, yet Zegler faced a whole lot of hate. She said of the ordeal:

"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."

Zegler said that she simply wants girls and women who see the film to feel like they can proverbially "have it all," and also clarified that the love story between Snow White and her prince is in the film ... but just isn't the entire focus.

"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. The love story 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 touch on her personal connection to Snow White.

"She was my mom's favorite princess. When she was growing up, there weren't a lot of dark-haired princesses, and that was the one she could relate to."

Zegler also points out that she watched Brandy's 1997 version of Cinderella, featuring Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother, constantly as a kid, and that Disney princesses can be played by anybody across as many adaptations as possible and it's still the same character. 

"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.' 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."

This doesn’t seem controversial. It seems like a no-brainer. But if people want to be mad about something, they’ll always figure out a way to do it. I am looking forward to seeing what they’ve done with this new Snow White, and I think it’s cool to hear that it won’t be a shot for shot remake of the original.

The film also stars Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, Ansu Kabia as the Huntsman, Martin Klebba as Grumpy, and Andrew Burnap as Jonathan. 

Snow White is set to hit theaters on March 21, 2025.