Rachel Zegler, who played Snow White in Disney’s live-action film, claimed the backlash she received brought “threats to my life.”
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, Zegler said that backlash to her comments and the film brought “threats to my safety.” Of note, she did not provide any evidence to support this claim.
Additionally, she shared it led her to conclude, “If I’d been able to predict everything that would come my way... I would have just thrown my phone into the ocean. I think any sane person would have."
Unlike previous interviews, she did also tacitly admit at least some of the blame belongs on her, “I wish I’d had maybe five more years on me before all that happened – a little more of a frontal lobe."
Nevertheless, she also doubled down on promoting woke ideology, “The next time a woman of colour is cast as a Disney princess, I’ll be there with bells on to support them, to lift them up, to advise and to tell them what not to do."
Back in 2022 at D23, Zegler conducted a number of interviews deriding the original animated Snow White film. She told Extra TV, “The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so. There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird. Weird. So we didn’t do that this time.”
After being asked about the Prince, she said, “We have a different approach to what I’m sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because like we cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnap, great dude.”
She continued, “It’s one of those things that I think everyone’s going to have their assumptions about what it’s actually going to be, but it’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful. And whether or not she finds love along the way is anybody’s guess until 2024. All of Andrew’s scenes could get. Who knows? It’s Hollywood, baby!”
“It’s an inner journey that she goes on to find her true self. And she meets a lot of people along the way that make the journey really incredible,” she concluded.
She also told Variety, “I just mean it’s no longer 1937, and we absolutely wrote a Snow White–”
Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot, who is playing the Evil Queen, then asserted, “She’s not gonna be saved by the prince.”
Zegler concurred, “She’s not gonna be saved by the prince and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love.”
“She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be. The leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, brave, and true. And so it’s just a really incredible story for, I think, young people everywhere to see themselves in,” she concluded.
Zegler also shared to Entertainment Weekly, “The reality is that the cartoon was made 85 years ago and therefore it’s extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world. And so when we came to reimagining the actual role of Snow White it became about the fairest of them all meaning who is the most just. And who can become a fantastic leader.”
“And the reality is, you know, Snow White has to learn a lot of lessons about coming into her own power before she can come into power over a kingdom,” Zegler shared.
Gadot also said, “Also the fact that she’s not going to be saved by The Prince and she’s the proactive one and she’s the one who set the terms is what makes it so relevant to where we are today.”
According to Caroline Reid at Forbes, Zegler’s Snow White film lost $170 million for Disney. She noted the budget for the film was $336.5 million, but that was reduced to $271.6 million after receiving a $64.9 million reimbursement for filming in the United Kingdom.
The film only grossed $87.2 million domestically. It added another $118.4 million internationally for a global gross of just $205.6 million.
Fandom Pulse is reader-supported independent journalism. Paid subscribers get exclusive scoops and investigative reporting daily.
Dive into The Immortal Edge by Jon Del Arroz where Imperial Special Agent Ayla Rin uncovers a deadly conspiracy tied to a revolutionary immortality spore held by ruthless space pirates, forcing her into a high-stakes race across the stars to stop sinister forces from erasing humanity forever.
NEXT: Quentin Tarantino Responds To Rosanna Arquette Criticizing His Use Of The N-Word In His Movies
I was wondering why her name started popping up again on sites and feeds I frequent.
Not sure why Hollywood is giving her career a defibrillator shock. The doctors already left the room, the coroner has pronounced, the toe tag is on, and the body is cooling on the slab.
Those threats were well deserved. And with those eyes, she can see danger coming from both sides without turning her head.