Rachel Zegler reflects on ‘confusing time’ during Snow White backlash
There was a backlash on social media after Zegler, who is from a Colombian background, was cast as the character, who is described as ‘white as snow’.
American actress Rachel Zegler has said that if she had known about the backlash that would follow her casting as Snow White, she would have thrown her phone away.
The singer and actress made her name as Maria in the 2021 remake of West Side Story, before taking on the role as the princess in the Disney live action remake of its popular 1930s animated film Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs.
When the 24-year-old, who is from a Colombian background, was cast as a character described as having a complexion “as white as snow”, there was a backlash on social media.
Zegler defended herself at the time, saying that she was “extremely appreciative of the love I feel from those defending me online” but asking them not to tag her in comments.
Speaking about her Latina background, she told Harper’s Bazaar UK: “I was told I wasn’t enough of one thing for West Side Story and too much of another for Snow White.
“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.”
She added: “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.
“I think any sane person would have.”
The star told the magazine that she wishes she had been older when she rocketed to fame, and said: “I wish I’d had maybe five more years on me before all that happened – a little more of a frontal lobe.”
Zegler also starred in the prequel film for the popular Hunger Games franchise, titled The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes.
The upcoming film in the series, Sunrise On The Reaping, is due for release later this year, with Ugandan-Canadian actress Whitney Peak among the new additions to the cast.
On this, Zegler said: “I reached out to say, ‘I’m here, even though I hope to God you don’t need me.’
“And 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.”
Zegler went on to say she has received support from British actress Dame Helen Mirren and Kill Bill star Lucy Liu, who featured alongside her in superhero film Shazam! Fury Of The Gods.
She said: “We’d have long conversations about what it means to be a woman in this industry, and the disappointments they both faced at times.”
The award-winning actress made her West End debut last year in Sir Tim Rice and Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical Evita as Argentine politician Eva Peron, and her performance was widely praised by critics.
Zegler is set to take the stage again this year to star as Cathy in Jason Robert Brown’s production of The Last Five Years, which she described as her “dream role” when she was 16 years old.
The April issue of Harper’s Bazaar UK is on sale from March 10.
