Rachel Zegler is in full damage control mode as she completely backtracked on her abhorrent criticism of The Walt Disney Company’s 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Snow White (2025), Walt Disney Studios
In an interview with The Little Mermaid actress Halle Bailey for Variety’s Actors on Actors, Bailey stated, “I mean, being an amazing Latina woman as Snow White, first of all, wow, and you are opening so many doors for your whole community as well. What has that felt like and has that been different or difficult to step into that world for you? Is is pressure? What do you feel?”
Zegler responded, “I mean definitely pressure. The cartoon’s so beloved. It’s like a monumental moment in film history. It was like the first feature length cartoon movie to the point where it won honorary Oscars and all of these amazing things that happened for that film are the reason that you and I really get to sit here today because it made Disney what it is.”
She continued, “So, of course there’s this pressure of being the first one, having to bring to life the first one. And obviously that’s come with a lot of pressure that I’ve put on myself, and, also just like Hunger Games there’s just a very dedicated group of people who love Disney cartoons. I’m one of them. I love everything that the Disney company has put out in the past million years, 100 years this year.”
Zegler then appealed to emotion and began crying, “So how do you put little baby Rachel at ease with what you’re doing in your career? How is it that you come to this role and make little Rachel proud? And that was really what I used to fuel my emotion on that set and who I was because all the pictures are out there of little me in my little Snow White gown.”
Rachel Zegler via Good Morning America YouTube
Later in the interview, Zegler would be asked about the music in Snow White and said, “I mean intense. It’s just like you said. Oh god, this is an iconic thing that people really care about. I don’t wanna mess this up for anybody, including myself.”
“Obviously, the writers and Marc Webb, our director, and our entire producing team, it’s a bit different story-wise and so we were able to do “Whistle While You Work,” which made me really happy and excited. And I was honestly just really nervous about the technical element because obviously that first look image went out and there is a lot of CGI in the film. Most of that day was spent with singing to nothing, which I’m sure you also know how that can be because there was a lot of puppetry and then CGI in post.”
“And so it was really intense and there’s a lot of bloopers of me tossing a broom and then letting it fall to the ground because that’s apparently how you pass things off to CGI characters,” Zegler relayed. ”
Rachel Zegler via Variety YouTube
She then asserted, “But it’s so much fun. It goes back down to the root of why these movies were so successful when they came out, is because they captured the human emotions so well and the things that make us joyful, and also the things that make us cry.”
“They’re able to tug on those heart strings so well,” she continued. “They’re very good at what they do, which is why they’ve been around for 100 years.”
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
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Zegler previously derided the film in a number of interviews at D23 back in 2022. 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.”
It appears abundantly clear that The Walt Disney Company’s PR team has completely changed how they are going to promote the Snow White film. Instead of having Zegler go out and deride the film, they are having her ensure that she is praising the film.
Unfortunately for them, the cat is already out of the bag, and it is now abundantly clear that no matter what way you look at it Rachel Zegler comes across as a liar.
Rachel Zegler as Maria in 20th Century Studios’ WEST SIDE STORY. Photo by Niko Tavernise. © 2021 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
What do you make of Zegler’s recent comments about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?
She got a talking to from the Disney lawyers. If anything, this proves she’s a terrible actress.