Snow White, Disney, Rachel Zegler and a toxic debate that does not disappear

Whether you like the new Snow White film or hate it, it is difficult to escape the debate around its main actress, Rachel Zegler.

The 23 -year -old star dominated the conversation about the film because people blame him for his bad reviews or jump for her defense, saying that she was unfairly offbeat.

And this debate is not new to Zegler.

Long before Snow White came out, She was in the center of the stormMany criticizing his point of view on the original film and his political opinions, including those of the American president Donald Trump and his voters.

Others defended it and expressed their discomfort to see such a young actress undergo a battery.

The film critic Kelechi Ehenulo calls Zegler victim of “cultural wars” and warns that the actors of under-represented horizons (Zegler is Latina) often find themselves to become “targets for the counterpoup”.

So how did we get to this point – and where is Zegler from here?

Let’s start with the film itself.

The live version of Disney by The Classic Fairy Tale Snow White was published earlier this month As “toe curlingly terrible”.) American criticisms were a little more positive – but despite the fact that he at the head of the table of the Box -Office of North America, he did not earn as much money as expected.

On social networks, some people quickly pointed out on Zegler, arguing that she hampered the release.

They include Jonah Platt, the son of the producer of Snow White Marc Platt. Earlier this week, he targeted Zegler in an ardent article on social networks. It has since been deleted, but has been captured by the screen by several points of sale, in particular The New York Post.

He said that Zegler had “(dragged) his personal policy” in the film’s promotional campaign, adding: “His actions clearly harmed the film’s box office”.

Platt did not respond to a request for comments from BBC News.

Controversies started much earlier.

Before the release of the film, Zegler faced online abuses by people who did not agree with his casting in the role of a character considered as skin “as white as snow”.

Zegler made the headlines after his comments in 2022 on the original film. “There is a big goal (in the original) on its love story with a guy who literally tracks her. Weird! So we did not do it this time.”

Zegler also said The original film was “extremely dated with regard to the ideas that women are in roles of power”, adding: “People make these jokes on ours being the Snow White PC, where it is, yes, it is – because it needed it.”

Many have seen these words as a reprimand against the Disney tradition.

The Daily Mail marked her a “awakened tirade” and an article This week in variety said that she “ransacked the beloved original Snow White”.

The editor -in -chief of City Am, Victoria Luxford, says that the criticism of the original film “was never going to work well. These films are marketed on nostalgia, making you feel as you did when you saw the original, so to speak negatively, it seemed confusing”.

Zegler refused to comment on this piece.

But Anna Smith, film critic and host of The Girls on film Podcast, told BBC News that some of the titles could be misleading.

“Zegler pointed out that times and attitudes have changed, and that the new White Snow has been adapted to the current age. This is the case with many remakes and restarts, many of which do not make titles with comments on” WOKE “culture.”

Zegler’s political opinions have also triggered a backlash.

Last summer, she thanked fans for their response to the film’s trailer In a post on xAdding: “And always remember, free Palestine”.

According to the variety article, Marc Platt – mentioned above – flew to New York to speak directly with Zegler after the position.

Neither Zegler ni Platt responded to a request for comments on this subject.

Zegler also attracted controversy with her opinions after the American presidential election of 2024. Writing on Instagram, she said that she hoped “Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace”.

She apologized later For what she said.

Some congratulate her to tell them. Ehenulo says that she is “not the first and certainly not the last actor to speak of politics”.

And Luxford told me that she had “trouble” to imagine the main audience of the film, children under the age of 10, influenced by her policy.

But the film critic Conor Riley said that his comments on Trump had not “helped the stability of the film’s release”.

He notes that Gal Gadot, who plays the stepmother of Snow White, The Evil Queen, also faced a reaction from some people. Gadot, who is Israeli, was vocal in his support for the country.

The film’s moment did not help either, he added.

“In the end, (Zegler) has become a lightning rod for controversy, not only because of its own actions, but because Snow White landed at the intersection of the creative stagnation of Hollywood, racial policy, international conflicts and the deep ideological fractures of America,” he said.

Some, like Luxford, argue that some of the batteries come from “a place of damage”.

“She is a young Latina with political opinions that do not align with certain groups, which are not quick to express their anger,” she said.

Zegler is far from being the first young actress to find herself in front of a toxic reaction. Recently, actor of Stranger Things Millie Bobby Brown criticized press items About his appearance, saying “it’s not journalism, it’s intimidation”.

Smith notes that women in a prominence position are more likely to be targeted in this way.

“When women in the eyes of the public are criticized, there are often parts at work. Whatever the subject, the way it is treated, spoken and reported will often be different from the way men are treated,” she said.

Ehenulo, for his part, calls on the industry to do more to protect their stars.

“What annoys me is how much the actors (people of color) become easy to become counter-coupling targets on social networks and yet the culture of the silence of studios, media and social media platforms says a lot,” she said.

“This lack of public protection … means that toxicity continues to be transmitted and to go up. It is the West West over there and I cannot see it improve when it was normalized to such an extent.”

We put these statements to Disney, but they refused to comment.

The big roles continue to come to Zegler. She is now registered to play in Evita in the West End this summer, and on Friday, she made a different sense – by reading a story of sleeping cbeebies.

At the end of the storyZegler says to young viewers: “To be a powerful princess, you just need to be wonderful, shiny you!” For some, it is a message that sums up Zegler herself.

“I don’t know if she’s going to make another Disney film anytime soon,” explains Luxford, “but she is 23 years old, she is a winner of the Golden Globe, and she is a very talented actor.”