The Unfiltered Truth: Rachel Zegler’s Unexpected Response to Disney’s Toughest Fans

Ever since she made her feature film debut in Steven Spielberg’s (masterful) remake of “West Side Story” in 2021, Rachel Zegler has become a lightning rod for controversy — although, to be incredibly frank, it’s usually because people are being weird and racist to her on the Internet. That has definitely been the case when it comes to Zegler’s other upcoming remake, “Snow White,” where she plays the titular Disney princess. And in a recent profile, she told Variety that her film creates an alternate history regarding the princess’ name and said that she tries to just ignore the rudest Disney fans (specifically, ones angry that a Latina actress is 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,” Zegler told the outlet. “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.”

As Zegler says (rather pointedly) in the profile, 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,” Zegler mused. “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.”

Besides the absurd racism surrounding Rachel Zegler as Snow White, the actress also made waves by criticizing 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 is a perfectly fair point to make, and yet Zegler faced significant pushback — so what did she say about it now to Variety?

“In all honesty, it made me sad that it was taken in such a way, because I believe that women can do anything,” Zegler said. “But I also believe that they can do everything.” Specifically, Zegler said that she simply wants girls and women who see the film to feel like they can pro…” data-post-url=”https://www.slashfilm.com/1678772/rachel-zegler-snow-white-star-toxic-disney-fans-feelings/” data-post-title=”How Snow White Star Rachel Zegler Really Feels About Toxic Disney Fans” data-slide-num=”2″ data-post-id=”1678772″>

It feels incredible that, despite the completely outrageous hatred she receives from random online trolls, Rachel Zegler maintains such a positive attitude about her career and her upcoming projects — including the moment where she tells Variety that she has a personal connection to Snow White. “She was my mom’s favorite princess,” Zegler revealed. “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 makes an excellent point where she says that she watched Brandy’s 1997 version of “Cinderella” — the one 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,” Zegler said in reference to Brandy’s performance. (Brandy also provided a touching statement for the piece where she celebrated Zegler’s identity as a woman of Colombian descent playing the role of Snow White, saying that she’ll undoubtedly inspire little girls across the world.) 

“Obviously, we watched the cartoon,” Zegler continued. “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.”

After Rachel Zegler sent in an audition tape for “West Side Story” and won over one of the world’s greatest living directors, she skyrocketed to fame… and kept booking big projects. In 2023, she played Anthea in “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” — which she bluntly said she did for the money — and that same year, she starred as tribute Lucy Gray Baird in the “Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” where she sang her own songs live opposite Tom Blyth as a young Coriolanus Snow (the future president of the dystopian Panem played by Donald Sutherland in the original four movies). In the Variety article, Zegler also extensively discusses her starring role in a new Broadway production of “Romeo + Juliet,” where she leads as Juliet (with “Heartstopper’s” Kit Connor as her Romeo), which presents a much younger and fresher take on the Bard’s classic love story.

Despite her powerhouse voice, serious acting chops, and frankly