When actress Rachel Zegler gives an interview, Disney executives get nervous. The Snow White star has caused no small amount of PR damage from speaking off the cuff, and her latest interview with Variety features its fair share of zingers.
Rachel Zegler casts herself as the victim of sexism in the backlash to her Snow White comments, claiming people deliberately misinterpreted what she said in order to see a woman being torn down. Later, she doubles down on her “free Palestine” activism — a phrase that has been adopted by anti-Israel activists demanding the elimination of the Jewish state.
She also drops a few f-bombs — not exactly behavior becoming of a Disney princess.
Zegler ignited an enormous backlash from Disney fans last year over comments in which she insulted the original 1937 animated film. Old videos resurfaced showing the actress pompously trashing the Disney classic, claiming that the Prince character is a creepy stalker and that women no longer crave romance.
Her snarky attitude created a PR nightmare for Disney’s live-action remake, in which she plays the title role. The release was pushed back by a full year to 2025 amid the PR blowback, as well as reports of extensive reshoots.
In an interview this week with Variety, Zegler cast herself as a victim of sexism, saying she wasn’t surprised by what she called people’s willful misunderstanding of her comments.
“I’ve watched women get torn down my whole life, my whole career,” she said. “We’ll watch it in the election that’s upcoming. 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.”
She also said: “In all honesty, it made me sad that it was taken in such a way, because I believe that women can do anything. But I also believe that they can do everything.”
Zegler didn’t elaborate on her accusation that her comments were misinterpreted. Most reports, including those from Breitbart News, simply quoted her directly from the video interviews.
Later in the Variety piece, Zegler addressed her series of social media posts from August in which she was promoting Snow White but also snuck in “free Palestine.”
She told the outlet that she wants to continue to use her platform to “advocate for the Palestinian people.”
“I don’t have the answers,” she said. “I don’t think any celebrity making a political statement has the answers. But we have the platform to share a donation link to make sure that these people get the money, the care and the aid that they need that people in power aren’t giving them. If that means that it can fall upon us to be in power in a way that is helpful, then I’m happy to do it.”
Zegler told Variety that she hates Los Angeles.
“I kind of can’t stand this town. I don’t like that there’s a town built around the industry that I work in; it’s stifling and isolating and weird. In New York, nobody gives a fuck,” she said.
Zegler is set to star in a Broadway production of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, opening October 24.
Snow White is set to open in March 2025, after previously being slated for the year before.
The live-action remake was plagued by reports of reshoots after unauthorized on-set photos leaked providing the first look of the “seven dwarves” — who resembled multiracial hipsters who were almost all normal size after the studio pledged last year to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes” about midgets.
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