The latest heated debate to take over TikTok doesn’t involve an influencer brand trip or a celebrity feud—it involves the upcoming live-action remake of Disney’s classic 1937 animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The upcoming addition to Disney’s endless string of remakes is slated to be released in March 2024 and will star Rachel Zegler, best known for her roles in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and the forthcoming Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. The new Snow White movie has already been a target of, shall we say, traditionalists who are not happy about the casting of Zegler—who is half Colombian and half Polish—as the famously “fairest” Disney princess. But of late, Zegler has angered more than just the usual suspects: Beyond the narrow band of “losers obsessed with maintaining the bloodline purity of cartoon princesses,” people of seemingly all kinds of political and racial demographics now appear to have a bone to pick with the 22-year-old actor, thanks to a few resurfaced clips of interviews in which Zegler discusses the progressive updates that the new version of Snow White will have. Below, our best attempt at wading through the fallout of TikTok’s poisoned apple.
You say this all started with resurfaced interviews. What are these interviews, and what does Zegler say in them?
Almost a year ago, Zegler, who had recently been announced as the lead of Disney’s live-action version of Snow White, gave an interview to Extra TV at the 2022 D23 Expo (an event very similar to Comic-Con, but for Disney projects) to discuss her upcoming turn as the titular princess. In the interview, she notes that Snow White’s familiar story would be reimagined for today’s more progressive time. This is not unusual: Emma Watson’s Belle abandons her corset in 2017’s Beauty and the Beast, and Halle Bailey’s Ariel saves the prince from the villainous Ursula, instead of the other way around, in this year’s The Little Mermaid.
However, it’s not so much what Zegler said as how she said it that appears to have ruffled feathers. By way of trying to explain the film’s progressive makeover, Zegler criticizes the original for “very evidently” being a product of the 1930s. “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her,” she says, calling that dynamic “weird” in a singsong, seemingly sarcastic voice. Her version, Zegler says, is “really not about the love story at all,” a change she deems “wonderful.” Instead, it’s about Snow White’s “inner journey” to “find her true self.”
In another resurfaced interview from last year, this time with Entertainment Weekly, Zegler reveals that as a child she was so scared of the animated movie that she watched it for the first time in more than a decade while prepping for her role. She also notes in this interview that the original film is “extremely dated” regarding “ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world.” In the new version, she says, the film’s most famous phrase, “the fairest of them all,” will refer to the most just as opposed to the most beautiful.
Well, that doesn’t sound so bad. Who is so mad at her and why?
Seemingly all of TikTok—and not just the weird red-white-and-blue corners—is mad! There seem to be a few common reasons: First, fans of the original film aren’t taking kindly to what they feel are disparaging comments about a beloved childhood staple of theirs. Some TikTok users are recirculating clips of actors like The Little Mermaid’s Bailey, who led a more, ahem, graceful promotion cycle that involved highlighting the modern updates in her film without bad-mouthing the original version. Others simply believe that Zegler’s read of the near-century-old animated film is wrong: They don’t regard the prince as a stalker, and they see the film not as one that portrays a prince-obsessed princess but, rather, one that centers Snow White’s relationships with her friends, the dwarfs. Others don’t see the problem with focusing on a love story, sharing versions of the same rebuttal: Aren’t women allowed to want love? When did that become so bad? And, of course, the staunchest Snow White fans aren’t jazzed about the idea of someone who wasn’t a huge fan of the original leading the remake.
Are these the same people raging about the remake being too “woke”?
There may be some overlap, but many of these Zegler critics seem to be just regular TikTok users—the kind who probably wore pink to Barbie and loved it, who likely aren’t married to this old-fashioned idea of a snow-white Snow White. On the other hand, this whole thing dovetails a bit with the reactionary backlash that we often see bubble up on TikTok and other social media platforms (see Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp) when the targeting of one individual becomes a trend off of which to earn likes and followers.
In the more explicitly conservative corners of TikTok, meanwhile, some people are mad at Zegler because, well, they were always going to be mad at a biracial Latina actor playing Snow White. There’s also been a bit of a backlash against Disney’s decision to reimagine the seven dwarfs—characters that perpetuate stereotypes of dwarfism, as actors like Peter Dinklage have pointed out—as “magical creatures” in a diversity of genders, heights, and ethnicities. However, even given all of this baggage, Zegler’s resurfaced interviews definitely didn’t help. Some conservatives believe not only that Zegler’s tenure as Snow White is an act of “cultural appropriation” but also that a more feminist tale is an act of virtue signaling that will water down the original’s great moral sensibilities (LOL).
I definitely wouldn’t go so far as to agree with that line of reasoning, but is there any merit in what the more normal critics are saying?
I can see why some people are irked by Zegler’s comments, just as I can kind of see where Zegler is coming from. Is the original movie—although a technical and artistic marvel at the time it came out—thematically outdated by now? Definitely. Dinklage’s opposition to its depiction of dwarfism is apt, and Zegler has some valid points about the film being almost entirely unconcerned with Snow White’s ability to do anything except be a good person and kind friend. Then again, that’s not worth nothing, and she is a bit busy trying to escape being actively persecuted by her evil stepmother to ponder her future as a political leader. The jury’s still out on whether the prince is actually a stalker, but he may just be a music lover who cannot help but follow the dulcet tones of a beautiful voice.
As for Zegler’s comments about focusing on love, she is right that women are more than just the people they fall in love with, but her detractors are right in that women can be smart and capable but also want to fall in love, and that’s fine too.
It’s like what Emma Watson says as Meg March in Greta Gerwig’s remake of Little Women: “Just because my dreams are different than yours doesn’t mean they’re unimportant.”
It’s funny you should say that, because some Zegler critics on TikTok have posted that exact scene in response to her comments. However, not only are people reacting to chopped-up pieces of Zegler’s interviews that erase any modicum of greater context they may exist in, but also, Gerwig herself is credited as a co-writer on the upcoming Snow White. Reposting that clip may not be the own that those users think it is.
Is this the first time that Zegler has incurred the wrath of the internet public?
No, unfortunately. Zegler isn’t necessarily the most decorous celebrity when it comes to the media or the internet; she has a demeanor that can come across as charmingly awkward to some, and a tad glib and grating to others. Most notably, in January of last year, Zegler landed in hot water after posting a dramatic monologue reading of some of Britney Spears’ tweets right as Spears was having a public argument with her younger sister, Jamie Lynn Spears, who’d aired some of their family’s dirty laundry in her memoir Things I Should Have Said. Many people called Zegler out for this, which was considered insensitive in light of the #FreeBritney movement and the increasing public awareness of the trauma and mistreatment that the singer has faced from the industry, the public, and her own family and management. (Zegler deleted the video and subsequently apologized.)
There was also the time when Zegler wasn’t invited to the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony, despite being a star of West Side Story, which was nominated for seven awards, including best picture. She commented on social media about the snub, which resulted in her being invited to attend and present an award on air—an incident that proved divisive, as some found Zegler’s complaint to be justified, while others found it to be entitled.
Zegler’s outspokenness on social media has also drawn all the usual right-wing attacks, like after she condemned the racist backlash against Halle Bailey’s casting in The Little Mermaid, or when she called the gunman-turned-conservative-darling Kyle Rittenhouse a “racist” and “white supremacist” on Twitter.
Are people coming to her defense?
Definitely! There’s a growing swell of people who are noting that this backlash is being blown out of proportion. Some are pointing out that Zegler’s haters are conveniently ignoring all the times the actor has said she loves Disney and being able to play Snow White. (In fact, Zegler herself retweeted one such response.) There are also those who are defending Zegler’s interview demeanor as a whole, especially in the context of a younger generation of celebrities who embrace the “celebrities—they’re just like us” school of relatability on the red carpet and on social media.
And what about Zegler? Has she responded to this whole mess yet?
As of press time, the actor has not exactly commented publicly on the brewing storm, but her tweets suggest that she is aware of it. In addition to the aforementioned retweet, Zegler has tweeted that she hopes “the world becomes kinder,” and to “remember to be kind.” She has also written, in one reply on Twitter, that she thinks “it’s over for [her] tbh”—a worrying sentiment, and one that, in an ideal world, would invite more empathy than she’s receiving now.
Wow. That’s certainly a lot for one person to shoulder.
It’s just really silly, isn’t it? Yeah, Zegler’s comments might not have been great, but the negative response has probably gone too far. What could have been thoughtful, respectful pushback has unsurprisingly devolved into vitriolic hate for clout. And here’s one more thing: No matter your feelings about Zegler herself, we should all be grateful that Disney is at least casting actors who can actually sing for these remakes.
