If this is meant to be the beginning of a Rachel Zegler comeback tour, it’s off to a rough start.
The actress who found herself at the center of Disney’s troubled live-action Snow White remake is once again drawing attention after speaking with Harper’s Bazaar UK about the backlash surrounding both the film and her public behavior over the past few years.
But rather than signaling a change in tone following the collapse of the film at the box office, Zegler’s latest comments appear to continue the same messaging that helped make her one of the most polarizing young figures in Hollywood.
In the interview, Zegler framed the criticism she has faced largely through the lens of identity and public expectations.
Rachel Zegler singing the original song “Waiting on a Wish” from Disney’s Snow White live action remake – YouTube, Disney
“I was told I wasn’t enough of one thing for West Side Story and too much of another for Snow White,” she said. “It was a really confusing time to be in my early twenties and hearing that. I grew up proud of being Colombian – eating the food, wearing the dresses, drinking the coffee, doing all the things that were so intrinsic to who I was as a kid and who I am as an adult – but I do think there’s an argument to be made that in the public eye at least, when you’re two things, you’re simultaneously nothing. But I refuse to assimilate for anybody else’s comfort.”
When discussing the mental toll that the backlash has taken on her, the actress also spoke about the role therapy has played in helping her process the experience.
“I long for a time when it’s not taboo to talk about and explore in a way that is universal and accessible,” Zegler said. “Everybody deserves to understand what’s going on in their own mind and heart.”
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Snow White (2025), Walt Disney Studios
At one point she also appeared to acknowledge the scale of the backlash that followed her comments over the past several years.
“If I’d been able to predict everything that would come my way, the threats to my safety, I would have just thrown my phone into the ocean,” she said. “I think any sane person would have.”
However, critics argue that the interview stops well short of any meaningful accountability for the rhetoric that helped fuel the controversy in the first place. Even that last quote is more lamenting the issues that arose from her rhetoric than the behavior itself.
The Snow White Controversy That Never Went Away
Disney’s live-action Snow White remake faced scrutiny long before it ever reached theaters.
The project was surrounded by months of debate about its creative direction, political messaging, and the studio’s attempt to reimagine the classic 1937 animated film for modern audiences.
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Snow White (2025), Walt Disney Studios
Zegler herself became one of the most visible faces of that debate after repeatedly criticizing elements of the original movie in interviews.
While discussing the remake’s approach, she defended the decision to significantly change the story, saying bluntly, “It needed that.”
For many longtime fans of the original film, those comments reinforced the perception that Disney’s remake was less interested in honoring the legacy of the classic fairy tale and more focused on reshaping it around contemporary political messaging.
Rachel Zegler via Variety YouTube
When the film finally debuted in theaters, the results were disastrous.
After years of delays, extensive reshoots, and a production budget that reportedly ballooned into the hundreds of millions of dollars, Snow White struggled to attract audiences and quickly became one of Disney’s most embarrassing theatrical failures in recent memory.
A Pattern Of Controversy
The backlash surrounding Zegler didn’t originate from a single interview or public comment.
Instead, it developed through a long list of incidents that repeatedly placed the actress at the center of online controversy.
During the promotional campaign for Snow White, Zegler drew criticism for remarks about the original film that many fans interpreted as dismissive. In one interview she described the classic story as outdated, stating, “It’s not 1937 anymore, and very evidently so.”
Honor Gillies as Barb Azure, Konstantin Taffet as Clerk Carmine and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Photo Credit: Murray Close
She also took aim at the original romance between Snow White and the Prince, describing the character as “a guy who literally stalks her” and calling elements of the story “weird, weird.”
In discussing the remake, she explained that her version of the character would not be dreaming about true love, but instead about “becoming the leader she always knew she could be.” At one point she even joked that the male love interest in the remake could be cut from the story entirely.
Outside of the film itself, Zegler became embroiled in political controversy on social media.
Following the 2024 election, she posted that President Trump and his supporters should “never know peace,” a comment that sparked significant backlash online.
A screenshot of Rachel Zegler’s Incendiary tweets about Donald Trump and his supporters – Photo Credit Steph Anie, @MyNerdyHome Via X
She also faced criticism after inserting geopolitical commentary into the marketing cycle for Snow White, including linking the release of the film’s trailer to the conflict in the Middle East.
According to industry reports, that rhetoric led to threats of violence directed toward her Israeli co-star Gal Gadot and her children. The situation became serious enough that Disney reportedly hired additional security for Gadot and her family.
Those reports also indicated that Zegler was asked by the film’s producer to remove her social media post in light of the threats, but she declined.
Gal Gadot and Rachel Zegler present together at the Oscars – X, @priceoreason
In addition, Zegler participated in the social media pile-on against former The Mandalorian star Gina Carano during the controversy that ultimately led to Carano being removed from the Disney+ series.
Taken together, these incidents helped shape a reputation around the actress that many observers believe overshadowed her actual work on screen.
Hollywood Distance And A Possible Comeback
Perhaps the most revealing development following the collapse of Snow White has been what happened afterward.
Despite being positioned only a few years ago as one of Disney’s rising stars following her breakout performance in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, Zegler’s upcoming slate currently appears surprisingly quiet for someone who recently headlined a major studio production.
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Disney’s live-action SNOW WHITE. Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2024 Disney Enterprises Inc. All Rights Reserved.
After the film’s release, Zegler returned to stage acting and, at the moment, has only one upcoming movie project announced — a smaller independent film titled She Gets It From Me.
In Hollywood terms, that’s a surprisingly light schedule for someone who was expected to be leading major studio projects for years.
That reality has led some observers to speculate that the Harper’s Bazaar interview could represent an attempt to reset her public image following the Snow White fallout.
Whether that effort succeeds remains to be seen.
Because rather than acknowledging why audiences may have taken issue with her previous comments, Zegler’s latest remarks once again frame the backlash primarily around identity and public perception.
Can Rachel Zegler Mount a Comeback?
Hollywood comeback stories typically come later in an actor’s career.
They rarely begin at age 24.
Only a few years ago, Rachel Zegler was widely promoted as one of Hollywood’s most promising young stars following her role in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.
Rachel Zegler as Maria in 20th Century Studios’ WEST SIDE STORY. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2021 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Today, however, the conversation around her career seems to be dominated less by upcoming film projects and more by the controversies that have followed her throughout the Snow White era.
If her strategy moving forward is simply more of the same rhetoric that fueled backlash in the first place, critics say the road back to Hollywood’s good graces may be a long one.
Do you think Rachel Zegler can mount a comeback? Sound off in the comments and let us know!
UP NEXT: Hoppers Had a Worse Debut than Rachel Zegler’s Snow White: The Media Pretends It’s the Opposite
SHES 24!!!!!!
The bïtch looks like she is in her mid 30s!!!!!!!
I guess Ozempic + Vegan + Leftisim really does ruin Women!!!!!!!!
Actresses do, indeed, lie about their age. Another is Meghan Markle.
Yes, and feminists are a scourge to civilisation.
Unless someone actually offers her a significant role, and I highly doubt that’s ever going to happen, then this won’t be much of a comeback.
Has she even been “gone” long enough to warrant a comeback??
Like Somalians, she will never lear, and I am here for it. She loves failing.
I lol’d! Doesn’t happen often. You get a gold star!
ha ha, thanks!
She should probably go away till someone tells her it is safe to come back. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
May she never live down her desecration and dismissal of Snow White.
Who gives a rip about her being “Columbian” because she drinks the coffee. FOLGERS is made with beans from Columbia and millions of people who aren’t even Columbia drink it. OH MAH GAWD Cultural Appropriation! Colonizers!
Unlike many major stars who lost careers to something stupid, she did it in a professional context. People who say dumb things when they get high or drunk, or who are in and out of jail or rehab. They did that on their own time. She used Disney time.
Plus she’s heading into her 30s and is likely to hit a wall, hard. She won’t be able to attract the waif/pedo crowd.
She never had a hit. There is nothing to “come back” from. She’s just a D-lister celeb who should never have been called anything higher.
Can you imagine how wonderful a non-feminist Snow White movie would have been with a cast that is White, instead of LA-illegals looking?
One hidden tragedy of all this is that White actresses have been deprived of dream roles. And, for what? To lose hundreds of millions. Way to go, feminists.
Where is Sally Struthers when we need her??
She died after eating all the food that was sent to those starving African children.