Hollywood icon’s Helen Mirren and Ariana Grande have stepped in to support the Snow White star amid ongoing controversy, reaching out privately as backlash surrounding the film continues to spark debate
Rachel Zegler has said fellow actresses Helen Mirren and Ariana Grande supported her following a backlash over the US star’s casting as Snow White.
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 Zegler, 23, who is from a Latina background, was announced as playing a character described as having a complexion “as white as snow”, there was a backlash on social media.
She defended herself at the time, saying that she was “extremely appreciative of the love I feel from those defending me online” but asked them not to tag her in comments.
Zegler told Allure magazine that British actress and The Good Place star Jameela Jamil has been “like a big sister to me” as Disney pushes to have more diverse actors play traditional characters. “I love that she has no regrets about being outspoken, about being strong-willed and strong-minded,” she added.
She also called her Shazam! Fury Of The Gods co-stars Mirren and Charlie’s Angels star Lucy Liu, her “keepers in all of this,” and said that she has felt “very held by them.”
While speaking about Wicked Oscar nominee Grande, Zegler said: “She reached out to me – kind of apropos of nothing – and was like, ‘If you need anything, I am here.’ She is so deeply kind. She has gone through so much in the public eye, and I have always really, really admired her courage in the face of all of that.”
The actress also said she hopes the film inspires young people to think that there is “nothing wrong with choosing to do what’s right and that it doesn’t have to be with anger or a clenched fist.”
“Snow White chooses kindness and still makes change,” Zegler said. “Power takes many forms. I hope we’ll see a new dawn of kindness and acceptance in the next couple of years. And people don’t see the need to use hate to cause further division.”
Zegler appeared to roll back during the interview on comments she made in 2022, when she remarked that the original film’s “love story, with a guy (the Prince) who literally stalks her” is “weird” .
She said in the latest interview she was “really proud to be representative of this particular story where (Snow) falls in love with such a sweet character.” Speaking about her role in West Side Story, she said that “white (studio) executives” questioned whether she was Latina on several occasions, leaving her feeling she had to “prove your identity to them.”
Zegler told the magazine that “they kept calling to ask if I was legit,” before adding: “I remember thinking, ‘Do you want me to bring my (Colombian grandmother) Abuelita in?’ I will. I’ll bring her into the studio if you want to meet her.”
Disney has appeared to have small-scale premieres in Los Angeles and Spain for the release of Snow White with few press opportunities.
The film also hit headlines in 2022 after Game Of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, who has dwarfism, told Marc Maron’s WTF podcast that Disney thought it was being “progressive” with casting. Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, called it a “backwards story of the seven dwarves living in the cave,” and said he was “a little taken aback” by Disney’s decision.
Following the remarks, Disney said it was consulting members of the dwarfism community to “avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film.” It then decided to make the miners with CGI, and this prompted criticism from some other actors with dwarfism.
Zegler will next star in Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical Evita as Argentine politician Eva Peron at the London Palladium later this year.
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