Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
This past weekend the remake of Disney’s 1937 classic “Snow White” hit theaters. The theatrical debut was a long time coming after being pushed back due to some controversies that occurred during the initial press tour for the film. The star of the film Rachel Zegler was the catalyst for several headlines that decorated news feeds about the film.
Zegler critiqued the original film and according to The Washington Post, called Snow White’s Prince “a guy who literally stalks” the princess. Not even a week later in an interview she called the original film dated on the topic of women in roles of power. She further went on to say that she watched the original once as a kid but it scared her so she never watched it again.
A year later she posted videos of herself as a kid dressed as different Disney Princesses. Some viewed it as a damage control move to fix the PR mess that was created. Some have pointed out the hilarity in how the star of the remake of “Snow White” is openly insulting the original film that allowed her the opportunity to be Snow White in the first place.
The next controversy that found “Snow White” was Peter Dinklage and his opinion on The Seven Dwarves. According to The Washington Post Dinklage told Marc Maron on the “WTF Podcast” his opinion on casting actors and actresses with dwarfism as The Seven Dwarves “ You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that [expletive] … backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together.” Disney took Dinklage’s feelings to be the feelings of the entire Dwarfism community. They posted about working with the Dwarfism community to avoid perpetuating harmful stereotypes of the original film and taking the Seven Dwarves in a different approach to having them in the movie.
Terra Jolé, an actor with dwarfism in an interview said that many of her peers would have loved the opportunity to be on of The Seven Dwarves and went on to criticize Disney for listening solely to Dinklage instead of the entire Dwarfism community.
There has been speculation about rocky feelings between Gal Gadot who played The Evil Queen and Rachel Zegler due to their difference of opinion on the war between Israel and Palestine. Gadot defended her home country Israel’s response to the Hamas attack in October of 2023. Zegler is firmly on Palestine’s side and a post she made on X with the trailer of the remake with the message “And always remember, Free Palestine” sparked the speculation. According to FOX News, fans were wondering if the message was a political dig at Gadot and her political views.
Zegler posted on Instagram following the election hoping that Trump voters and supporters never find peace. She ended her post saying “F— Trump.” She backtracked the posts chalking them up to her emotions getting the better of her after the election results were announced. Pushback from the public sparked her apology. “Snow White” has had a rocky road to release with issue after issue sprouting up in the news. Time will tell the effect the controversies will have on the box office earnings the film makes.
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