Rachel Zegler, the actress starring in Disney’s new live-action Snow White remake, has once again found herself at the center of controversy following the film’s poor box office debut.
While Disney had hoped the retake on the classic story would be a major hit, it has struggled to gain traction with a wide variety of extremely negative reviews. The IMDB rating for the film sits at 1.5 out of 10 stars as of Friday afternoon. Now, Zegler’s polarizing social media presence has resurfaced, possibly one of the factors behind the movie’s flop.
The Snow White reboot has faced criticism from the very beginning.
At first, production delays stretched out for years, according to Rolling Stone, while the casting choices — particularly the portrayal of the iconic dwarfs — ignited a viral debate about modernizing classic tales. Actors like Peter Dinklage, who himself has dwarfism, spoke out against the choice to use CGI to animate the dwarves in the movie, which in turn took away seven high-paying opportunities for underrepresented actors in the industry.
“I was a little taken aback they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White,” Dinklage said during a podcast with Marc Maron. “But you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. You’re progressive in one way, but you’re still making that f—— backward story of seven dwarves living in the cave. What the f— are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox?”
But Zegler’s outspoken political views caused a new storm of trouble for the film, generating an almost nonstop stream of backlash from fans and media alike.
One of the most controversial moments was when Zegler, who had already made waves for mocking the original Snow White film’s “outdated” plot, took to social media to attack President Donald Trump and his supporters.
In 2021, Zegler tweeted a message aimed at Trump, calling herself a “nasty, nasty b—-” in the process. The tweet resurfaced this week after the film’s flop opening, sparking viral online debates about her impact on the film’s success. Critics, including the film’s producer and his son, have argued that her past comments, combined with her wild political statements, created a big public relations headache for Disney.
Following the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the actress unleashed an attack on Trump supporters, posting on social media, “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace,” adding, “F— Donald Trump.”
Additionally, Last summer, Zegler posted a message to social media supporting the Free Palestine movement, which some could speculate was a veiled critique of her co-star Gal Gadot, an Israeli actress who had been vocal in support of her home country’s military actions in the wake of the October 2023 Hamas attacks.
After facing backlash, Zegler apologized for the Trump post and, according to Fox News, worked with a “social media guru” hired by Disney to review all of her posts before the film’s premiere.
In a particularly pointed exchange this week, Jonah Platt, the son of Snow White producer Marc Platt, took to Instagram to criticize Zegler. He claimed that her political posts had tarnished the film’s promotion and that his father had been forced to intervene to address the ongoing backlash. Platt’s comment, which was later deleted, painted Zegler’s politics as a liability to the film’s success, especially given the huge financial loss from the movie’s opening week.