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Rachel Zegler spoke up about the criticism she faced for being cast in Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs last year.
In a recent conversation with Andrew Garfield for Variety's Actors on Actors series, she spoke about how there was a massive backlash following her announcement. A large number of fans were unhappy with the idea of an actress of Latin descent playing Snow White.
She stated:
"At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess."
Rachel Zegler opens up about Snow White backlash, never imagined it could have happened
As conversation about the Snow White-incident took place, Zegler said:
"Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me. You don’t normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent. Even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries. Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale and all the stories that come with it."
While talking to Garfield, Rachel Zegler recalled how the news of her being cast as Snow White infuriated people and was trending on Twitter for days, as she said:
"But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that. When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry."
As a response to Zegler, Garfield remarked that people who were upset about the casting need to be educated and loved into awareness. Rachel Zegler, replying to Andrew Garfield, expressed her excitement for her new job which lets her be a Latina princess in a Disney movie and concluded:
"We need to love them in the right direction."
The 20-year-old actress previously responded to critics back when the casting was declared and faced extremely negative reactions. At the time, Zegler wrote in a now-deleted tweet:
Rachel Zegler was born to a Polish father and a Colombian mother in Hackensack, New Jersey. She won a Golden Globe for her performance as Maria in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story.
The upcoming Snow White movie faced criticism from Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage
Earlier last week, Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage criticized the upcoming movie for its depiction of the dwarf characters on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast. While discussing the concept of 'wokeness,' Dinklage told Maron that he was a 'little taken aback' when the casting of the movie was announced.
According to Dinklage, retelling the same old Snow White story with a modern cast didn't make sense to him. He called the movie out as hypocritical since the movie was about to tell the 'backwards' story of seven dwarfs who lived in a cave, although a 'progressive' decision to cast a Latin actress as Snow White was made.
In response to Dinklage's concerns, Disney made a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, noting they were going to take a different approach regarding the seven characters. They further stated that they had been consulting with people from the dwarfism community to avoid intensifying the stereotypes that were present in the 1937 animated movie.
Here's what is known about the Rachel Zegler starrer Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
While announcing the decision to cast Zegler as Snow White, director Marc Webb praised the actress in a statement. He called Zegler's "extraordinary" vocal skills "the beginning of her gifts." Webb further assured Disney fans that her "strength, intelligence and optimism" would unquestionably help him recreate the essence of joy in the remake of the classic fairytale written by the Brothers Grimm.
Rachel Zegler will star opposite Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, and Andrew Burnap in a yet-unrevealed role in the Snow White live-action remake. The release date of the upcoming Disney movie has not been announced yet.
