Amy Jayasuriya ’26
Editor-in-Chief
On March 25, Variety magazine released an article titled “Inside Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Fiasco: Death Threats, Beefed-Up Security and Social Media Guru for Rachel Zegler,” which recaps the messy opening weekend and press tour for the new live-action Snow White remake released on March 21. The article doesn’t shy away from its distaste of the titular actress, Rachel Zegler, who has come under fire from both Disney executives and fans alike over the past year leading up to the movie’s release.
As someone who has followed Zegler’s career since her Youtube cover days, seeing the recent rise in excessive hate and even death threats towards the actress was surprising, especially considering her talented acting and singing skills alike; both of which are key to making a perfect Disney princess.
Despite Zegler’s obvious talents, the film had a lackluster opening weekend, where it amassed only 44.3 million dollars despite its 270 million dollar budget. The disappointing release is most likely due to a myriad of factors including Zionists demanding a boycott of the movie due to Zegler’s call for an end to the genocide in Palestine. Additionally, pro-Palestine supporters have called to boycott the movie due to former Israeli Occupation Forces soldier Gal Gadot’s portrayal of the Evil Queen. There has also just been a general fatigue for Disney live-action remakes in general, causing many to skip out on the newest live-action release. Despite the numerous factors leading up to the film’s downfall, it seems as though Zegler has become the scapegoat on which the media and Disney executives are blaming the movie’s failure upon.
Hate campaigns towards women, specifically women of color, is nothing new in the entertainment industry. Halle Bailey, the star of the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid, received hundreds of death threats for simply being a Black woman cast as Ariel. Similarly, Zegler, who is half Colombian, has been on the receiving end of continuous racist rhetoric and harassment by people who refuse to accept that Snow White is being played by a non-white actress. However, this criticism has usually been reserved for a few racist trolls haunting X and largely remained out of critics and media’s perception of the remakes themselves.
However, when it comes to Zegler, it seems as though both media and heinous internet trolls alike have made it their new mission to tear the star down at every moment. Whether that be because of her claims that this version of Snow White would feature a more “independent” and “feminist” version of the character, or her demand to be paid a fair wage for the time and labor she put into her work as an actress, it seems as if the entire internet has banded together to spew vitriolic amounts of hatred at the 23-year-old.
As Zegler dealt with the hatred directed her way, Disney never released a statement of support defending the actress or their casting decision. Instead, they further criticized the actress for her tweet she made on Aug. 12: “and always remember, free Palestine.”
One of the executive directors of the film, Mark Platt, even flew out to New York to reprimand Zegler for her tweet as well as other expressions of solidarity for Palestine she has made on social media. Rather than cave to pressures from online trolls, Zionist executives at Disney, and the former IOF soldier who is her co-star, Zegler refused to take down the tweet.
However, her decision was met with immediate punishment by the media. In the aforementioned Variety article, the author, Tatiana Siegal, frames Zegler as a nuisance that has made the lives of the Disney executives and Gadot harder due to her “tendency to court controversy on social media.”
The Variety article also remarks how Zegler’s pro-Palestine comments forced Disney to hire extra security for Gadot, despite the company never publicly supporting Zegler as she dealt with a slew of racist and sexist messages after her casting was announced.
This is not Siegal’s first hit piece on an actress that has supported Palestine in the past, as she recently wrote three articles about actress Melissa Barrera after she was fired from the Scream movie franchise after she vocally supported Palestine on her social media accounts.
While Zegler’s career remains promising despite the hatred, as she is planned to make her West End debut in a new revival of the Broadway show Evita, the backlash that she’s had to undergo is just another example of the way the entertainment industry has been blacklisting any actor that speaks out against the genocide in Palestine.
Hollywood has historically silenced Palestinian and pro-Palestinian voices since its inception and Disney has been one of the largest media companies that has been materially and ideologically backing the ongoing genocide. Since Oct. 7, 2024, Disney has pledged over two million dollars to Israel and silenced actors and actresses like Zegler when they speak out against the ongoing genocide.
While the campaign against Zegler was another instance of the repression that anyone in Hollywood will face if they speak out in solidarity with Palestine, it’s nothing compared to the extreme forms of violence that Palestinian filmmakers and artists have been undergoing since the accelerated genocide began.
On March 24, Israeli settlers brutally assaulted Hamdan Ballal, a Palestinian director. The attack came after Ballal won an Academy Award for co-directing the documentary No Other Land, which explores the violence that Palestinians face living under Israel’s occupation. While in an ambulance on his way to the hospital, Ballal was detained by IOF soldiers and was released a day later on March 25. Since the attack on Ballal and his subsequent arrest, the Academy has made no statement expressing their solidarity with him or any of the other Palestinians attacked by the settlers.
While Rachel Zegler’s hate campaign is only a miniscule example of the repression people who are pro-Palestine face, it is however an example of how media corporations and the state normalize the ongoing genocide. By taking the time to research blacklisting campaigns, such as the one being inflicted on Zegler, we can take steps to stop the repression of pro-Palestinian voices within the media we consume.
Illustration by Anna Grez ’27
