The Latina actor, who is of Colombian and Polish heritage and starred in Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” remake, was referring to racist comments about her casting.
Rachel Zegler is reacting to the latest criticism surrounding the cast of the upcoming “Snow White” live-action film.
On July 14, Daily Mail published photos from the set of the remake, providing a first look of the diverse actors portraying the seven dwarfs from the Disney classic.
A Disney spokesperson released a statement to The Daily Beast that said “the photos are fake and not from our production.” The Daily Beast said that later, a rep from Disney’s “PR shop” confirmed the images were real but were not official “photos” from the set.
While some social media users criticized the casting choices for the seven dwarfs, racist comments about Zegler, who is Latina, being selected as the beloved Disney princess also resurfaced.
Many fans supported the “West Side Story” actor online, calling her “the perfect Snow White.”
Zegler expressed her gratitude to her fans, but she also said she no longer wants to engage with the “nonsensical discourse” surrounding her playing Snow White.
The 22-year-old tweeted on July 15, “Extremely appreciative of the love i feel from those defending me online, but please don’t tag me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting.”
She added, “I really, truly do not want to see it.”
Instead, Zegler wanted to embrace positivity and spread a more accepting message.
“So i leave you w these photos!” she wrote and included four childhood pictures of her dressing up as different Disney princesses, including Snow White.
The actor concluded, “I hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what.”
TODAY.com reached out to Disney for response to Zegler’s tweet but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Multiple Twitter users applauded Zegler, including Halle Bailey who dealt with racist backlash for playing Ariel in “The Little Mermaid.”
Bailey shared Zegler’s tweet and wrote, “We love you so much.”
The 23-year-old actor and musician added a red heart emoji and said Zegler was “truly the perfect princess.”
Since Variety reported in June 2021 that Zegler would lead “Snow White,” the Golden Globe winner has had to address hateful comments about her portraying the fictional character.
She opened up to Andrew Garfield about the backlash during their “Actors on Actors” interview for Variety in January 2022.
Speaking about getting the opportunity to play a Disney princess, she 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.”
She pointed out that Snow White, or Blanca Nieves, is also adored in Spanish-speaking countries.
“But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that,” she continued. “When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry.”
Garfield replied that those people need to be educated and Zegler agreed.
She said, “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.”
