Here’s Why Rachel Zegler’s Snow White Won’t Resonate With Audiences

The upcoming adaptation is no stranger to controversy. After Snow White’s first images were revealed, there was a public outcry over the composition of the seven dwarves: a mix of genders, sizes, and ethnicities. Publicly called out by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage, it appeared to be a clear cut case of diversity casting. After an onslaught of criticism, Disney turned away from their initial vision. Just check out the teaser trailer – the film now has seven CGI-created dwarves, putting real actors out of jobs in the process.

But the real curse on this fairy tale adaptation has been its star, West Side Story actress Rachel Zegler. Early on in the PR train, Zegler repeatedly criticized the original character of Snow White. “There's a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird,” Zegler attempted to joke, later backtracking her comments by praising the original 1937 animated classic. Following one misstep with yet another, Zegler then came under fire again this summer for allegedly egging on online antisemitic attacks against her Israeli Snow White co-star Gal Gadot. 

Actual footage was what fans needed to dispel their fears. Instead, the footage from Snow White revealed this August illustrates just how ill-suited to the beloved role Rachel Zegler really is. 

The New Snow White Seems Pretentious and Condescending

In addition to releasing the teaser trailer for Snow White, which is supposed to release in March 2025, Disney executives also released footage from the film during their August D23 Expo celebrations – footage which then got leaked on X.

Many users watched the comparison video and were immediately struck by a difference in Zegler’s tone compared to that of the original film in the opening moments of the beloved “Whistle While You Work” number. “The new one lacks love and drips condescension,” reads one comment. “Lmao wow from sweet and kind to bossy and patronizing,” says another.

But it’s more than Zegler’s tone, which could be chalked up to a bad recording disseminated on the internet. There’s still a fundamental difference between the scenes, one which removes a lot of meaning from Snow White’s story. In the original film, Snow White sings “Whistle While You Work” to her newfound woodland friends, inspiring them to help clean up a mess that isn’t of their making simply to do good. Snow White uses her ability to inspire and animate to bring order where once there was chaos and to bring cleanliness to disordered mess. It’s an act of selfless service that will begin thawing the dwarves’ hearts.

But in the new film, Snow White clearly is singing the song to the dwarves themselves, no woodland friends in sight. In the clip depicted, Snow White tells one dwarf, “You’ll clean those cobwebs,” and to another that “he’ll use the broom” – not appearing to do any service herself whatsoever. What’s so upsetting to fans is the way the scene’s original meaning has been compromised. This feels more like a Gen Z dream journal about male-come-uppance than an uplifting scene about putting good into a world that hasn’t been good to you – which is the quality that makes Snow White so special. This isn’t a live-action adaptation at all. It’s an entirely different story and meaning masquerading behind the fairest one of all.

Why Rachel Zegler’s Snow White Won’t Resonate with Audiences

It would be fair to ask at this point – is the criticism of Rachel Zegler just a result of her outspoken woke political attitudes? There’s a strong case to be made against evaluating an artist’s work based solely on their political beliefs, and judging Zegler’s performance based solely on some very pointedly woke opinions doesn’t do much to further the cause of truth or good art.

But there’s still good reason to believe that, based on what we’ve seen so far, Zegler’s Snow White won’t resonate with audiences. I, for one, can forgive a lot from an actor who has nothing in common with what I believe if they can submit themselves to the artistic needs of a story. That’s where Zegler has me unconvinced, and the released footage does little to encourage me.

Prior to starring in Snow White, Zegler was known primarily for two roles: Maria in the movie remake of West Side Story and Lucy Gray Baird in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Like most Spielberg films, West Side Story met with mostly positive reviews, but most of the praise was reserved for Zegler’s co-star Ariana Debose. Zegler’s Maria was frequently called an instance of “actual representation” – but she failed to capture the innocence turned to hatred of the role, and the reviews couldn’t hide it.

This is in contrast to A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, where Zegler’s talent really shone. Here Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird, the tribute sent to her death by District 12, who is kept alive through the sheer willpower of young mentor Coriolanus Snow. Zegler gives Lucy Gray exactly what the character needs – mesmerizing desperation and raw talent. Lucy Gray, as Zegler plays her, is a figure caught up in political moves she cannot control, but whose independent streak is irrepressible enough to nearly topple a regime.

But this is exactly why Zegler seems, based on what we know now, to be a bad fit for the role of Snow White – and why those leaked Disney Expo videos are so discouraging to watch. In Songbirds and Snakes, Zegler played a scruffy, tough, and irrepressible victim of a polluted political system. Lucy Gray responds to a cruel world with cleverness bred from starvation and the threat of death. It’s enough to help her survive the Games, but perhaps not the crueler mentor who lies behind them.

That’s not Snow White. Snow White is vulnerable, not battle-scarred. She acts with innocence in a world that is cruel – an innocence so powerful even the power of a wicked queen cannot overcome it. Even if we give Zegler the benefit of the doubt – a benefit which she, frankly, has not earned in her PR presence for the film – we still should be skeptical about her upcoming performance as Snow White. Zegler hasn’t displayed the skills to pull off Snow White’s character, and her PR presentation indicates that, beyond ability, she may not even want to.

Nothing about Rachel Zegler’s previous performances or her PR presentation indicates an actress who is prepared to take on the purity and innocence with which Snow White navigates her story. The new Snow White film increasingly looks like a Disney cash-grab live-adaptation, and even if they whistle while they work, I don’t think that’s going to change.