In June 2021, Rachel Zegler was cast to play the titular role of Snow White, in the upcoming live-action movie. Although, after several incidents involving her, Disney concluded that she was a problematic actress.
It all started on August 12, 2024, when she thanked her supporters on X after the teaser trailer was out and reached 120 million views in 24 hours. A couple of minutes later, she added an afterthought in the same thread: “and always remember, free Palestine.” The post amassed 8.8 million views—nearly four times the number of the initial post.
The studio was shocked that the Snow White star promoted the $270 million tentpole with a political statement. There was a rumor that the film’s producer, Marc Platt flew to New York to speak to her directly, and his son, Jonah Platt, confirmed it by saying: “Yeah, my dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for.”
Even after this, she stood her ground, and the post remained. Gal Gadot, her Israeli co-star, received death threats related to the post, and Disney had to pay for additional security for the four-time mother.
Three months later, after the presidential election, Rachel decided to post her political opinions once again, this time in a Instagram post saying, “Fuck Donald Trump” and “May Donald Trump supporters never know peace.” The studio was once again shocked, as she was targeting half of the potential audience. “She didn’t understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal, for anyone,” said an insider.
Platt addressed the issue with her again, and she began working with a social media guru—paid by Disney—to vet her posts before the film’s release date. Months later, at D23, she criticized the original Snow White (1937), saying that “the prince literally stalks” the princess.
One Disney top agent shared his thoughts on this: “First time she shoots her mouth off, you nip it in the bud.” On her side, Gadot kept her comments on geopolitics limited to offering support for the civilian hostages taken during the October 7 Hamas attack. She never mixed her personal political opinions with the promotion of the film.
The movie had a dismal domestic opening at $43 million.”You can’t say that a live-action remake of the most iconic film in the vault that cost [$270] million and has been reshot multiple times, opening to $50 million, is OK. The math does not work. That movie should be a billion-dollar movie,” said an executive at a rival studio, as the film was tracking for a $45-$55 million domestic opening.
The production claimed there was no bad blood between the two actresses behind the scenes, but things got tricky during the run-up to the release. Rachel referred to Gal as a “professional pageant queen” in one Instagram reply following their appearance as presenters at the Oscars. It was considered a dismissive way to describe a fellow actress.
Disney scheduled the actresses for separate events, and they were mainly kept apart at the premiere on March 15. Inside the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, Zegler sat two rows before Gadot and her family.
For Disney, the fairytale had already unraveled long before the credits rolled.
