Rachel Zegler, the breakout actress of West Side Story, recently discussed the hostility she experienced after being cast in the title role of Disney’s upcoming live-action film Snow White.
The 20-year-old actress discussed her casting announcement outrage with Andrew Garfield for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, saying, “When it was revealed, it was a major event that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were upset.”
“Ah, those people. The people that we need to educate. The people that we need to love into awareness,” said Andrew Garfield; to which Rachel Zegler replied, “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.”
“Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me,” she added. “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.”
She further continued, “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. But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that.”
Rachel’s initial performance as Maria in West Side Story, for which she won the Golden Globe for best actress in a motion film – musical or comedy, occurred months before the casting announcement for the Snow White remake.
Marc Webb, the filmmaker of The Amazing Spider-Man, is directing Disney’s next Snow White adaptation, which stars Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. The release date has yet to be determined.
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