Rachel Zegler offers a heartfelt response to the Snow White casting backlash and expresses her excitement to become a Latina princess. Based on The Brothers Grimm tale of the same name, the story revolves around the titular princess who flees from her home when her vain queen stepmother plots to kill her in an effort to remain the fairest in all the land. Snow White subsequently stumbles upon a cottage in the woods owned by seven adult dwarves who allow her to live with them, all the while the Evil Queen continues plotting ways to kill her.
Development on a live-action Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs movie was first announced in late 2016 shortly after the critical and commercial success of The Lion King remake, with the project first gaining proper steam in 2019 as Marc Webb signed on to helm. After a couple years of laying dormant, Rachel Zegler would sign on to star in the titular role in June of last year while Gal Gadot would join as the Evil Queen the following November and Greta Gerwig reportedly tapped to pen a new draft of the script. The announcement of a new Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has been met with some criticism and now one of the stars attached to the project is offering their thoughts on the backlash.
While appearing on Variety's Actors on Actors series with Andrew Garfield, Zegler opened up on the Snow White casting backlash. The young star recalls the casting announcement trending on Twitter for days due to the heated response to her landing the role and how she is looking to use this role and response for more positive means rather than let it get to her. See what Zegler said below:
“Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me. You don’t normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent. Even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries. Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale and all the stories that come with it. But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that. When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry. We need to love them in the right direction. At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess.”
Zegler's heartfelt response to the Snow White casting backlash is a very respectful approach to addressing those who have taken to social media to express their issues with the up-and-coming Latina star portraying the iconic princess. The West Side Story star recently opened up about her initial hurt from the casting backlash, revealing she felt an "imposter syndrome" as many took to accusing her of holding dirt on Hollywood executives in order to get her recent breakthrough roles. Her new comments expressing a desire to help these detractors change their mind and to bring representation to the role is sure to indicate her strength as an actress and person to move on from such a backlash as strong as she is.
The casting isn't the only element of Snow White to receive backlash as actor Peter Dinklage has notably come out and slammed Disney for the remake and its backwards approach to depicting dwarfs. Though Disney has since responded by assuring they are moving in a different direction with the seven characters and working closely with members of the dwarfism community, some are still not convinced of the project's viability in that element. Only time will tell how public opinion on the live-action Snow White sits as development continues on the movie.
Source: Variety