Rachel Zegler Tries to Win People Over Again
Rachel Zegler is attempting to remove her foot from her mouth, and it’s going about as awkwardly as you’d expect. Zegler is the star of Snow White, Disney’s upcoming live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the company’s first animated film and the one that put them on the Hollywood map. The film has had bad press since the first images of the characters substituting for the seven dwarfs hit the internet: a group of weird-looking bohemians assembled to make Peter Dinklage happy – Peter Dinklage and no one else. This led to reshoots with CGI dwarfs, a costly endeavor that resulted in bad special effects and even more derision from fans. But the biggest problem by far has been Rachel Zegler and her smug, entitled attitude. Zegler never missed an opportunity to denigrate Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, saying it was an antiquated movie with a creepy prince who “stalks” the title character, but her remake wouldn’t be about love but female empowerment. She didn’t help matters when she told reporters that she deserved to be paid residuals for playing Snow White or when she suggested her co-star Andrew Burnap could be removed from the film entirely. (“That’s Hollywood, baby!”) Then, when Donald Trump was elected President, she took a tantrum online, wishing that Trump and his voters “never know peace.” An apology was issued, which no one believes came from Zegler.
Disney’s Snow White (Rachel Zegler) says she hopes harm befalls Trump and all his voters: pic.twitter.com/rEWlpOVZvu
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) November 13, 2024
Well, Snow White’s release date must be close because Rachel Zegler is back, and she’s trying to be more positive. In an interview with Vogue Mexico, Zegler talked about the backlash she’s faced, and she appears to be attempting empathy. The problem is that she quickly pivots back to making herself the victim and framing the animosity towards her as being about race. Here are the quotes, as translated by Variety (which goes out of its way to apologize for Zegler and mischaracterize her detractors):
“I interpret people’s sentiments towards this film as passion… What an honor to be a part of something that people feel so passionately about. We’re not always going to agree with everyone who surrounds us and all we can do is our best… I understand that the conversation comes from the community not wanting to be seen as a monolith, but the reality of being Latino and working in this industry is that we try to represent the entire diaspora. I know where I’ve been, I represent it in my narrative, and I carry it in my heart every day. No one can ever tell me that it’s not a part of me… We need to love them in the right direction… 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.”
There are a couple of things to take from these comments. The first is that Rachel Zegler is going for a Henry Cavill moment. If you haven’t seen it, Cavill once defended fans against the accusation that they’re toxic, saying he thinks that they’re passionate, and that they have a right to be because they’re invested in the characters and properties that are being adapted. It was epic largely because it never seems to happen, and it earned Cavill a ton of goodwill from audiences. (I truly believe one of the reasons he keeps getting a raw deal every time he signs on to something is that Hollywood will never forgive him for being nice to fans.) Zegelr seems to be going for this kind of approach, likely at the direction of Disney’s public relations team – the same one that almost certainly wrote that apology of hers. The difference is that Cavill’s came off as authentic; he had everything to lose and nothing to gain by defending fans, but he did it anyway, and he’ll likely spend the rest of his career paying for it. But Zegler is doing this out of desperation, whether her own or Disney’s, and nobody thinks she cares what fans believe. The other is that she’s not acknowledging her past statements; she’s saying people only have a problem with her because she’s Hispanic, and then she pats herself on the back for how brave she is, how groundbreaking her casting is, and how Snow White is now Hispanic. That’s the problem with someone as narcissistic as Rachel Zegler clearly is trying to feign empathy or sincerity: they have no frame of reference for those emotions, so they can’t even keep up the masquerade. Seriously, Disney, good luck with that movie you’ve got coming out.
Let us know what you think of the new Rachel Zegler statement in the comments!
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