Rachel Zegler defends her new Snow White movie after outlets joke about it being PC. Walt Disney Pictures has made itself out as the kings of bringing princesses to life on screen, and with that comes the responsibility of portraying them in a positive light. The Disney Princess line was started in 2000 and aimed to give little girls a line-up of role models to look up to. Since then, the franchise has been viewed as being very divisive among consumers. While some see it as Disney celebrating their long history and giving younger audiences a grand introduction to these enduring characters, others see it as nothing more than a cash grab from the powerful studio.
The Disney Princesses have had a major resurgence, especially from Disney's current trend of readapting their animated classics as live-action feature films. With this came a new goal to be more open-minded. Upcoming films such as The Little Mermaid aim to depict a more inclusive cast, while the new Snow White film hopes to retell the story for a modern audience. While production on Snow White has already been completed, there are those who continue to mock the production for its attempt at trying to be progressive, especially after a series of influential decisions resulted in the film changing to be more accessible to current audiences.
Now, it appears Snow White star Zegler has had just about enough of the various responses the film has been receiving. While sitting with Vanity Fair, Zegler speaks out against the "jokes" that were being made about the film's new creative direction. Among the things that she has dealt with is the fact that she was cast despite being of Colombian descent, resulting in being asked numerous questions about her skin color, which she calls "bizarre." Additionally, she also addresses the film's more "PC" approach by stating how necessary it is:
People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it’s like, yeah, it is—because it needed that. It’s an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a function beyond ‘Someday My Prince Will Come.’
Why The Live-Action Snow White's Changes Are Good
Zegler makes a good point about Snow White's new direction; while the original film will forever be a classic, it is still a product of its time. When people speak positively of the film, the Dwarfs or the Evil Queen are considered standout characters, while Snow White herself is hardly remembered beyond her function in the plot, over which she has little agency. When it comes to setting a positive example for young girls, Disney's original princess is often considered the exemplar for what not to do in today's animated movies, so updating the protagonist to fit the times is absolutely warranted.
Additionally, Zegler's casting as Snow White is reportedly not the only change being made to this live-action adaptation. Following very public criticism from Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage regarding the original's representation of Dwarfs, Disney released a statement claiming to have taken a very different approach to the seven characters who, pointedly, no longer join Snow White in the film's title. While it remains to be seen whether these changes are received in the way the filmmakers hope, that the Snow White team is at least focused on updating the movie's animated predecessor is certainly a good thing.
Source: Vanity Fair