Disney's live-action take on “Snow White” was one of their biggest commercial and critical failures. “Snow White” grossed $86M domestically against a reported budget north of $270M. Due to an inordinate amount of review bombing — not to mention its lack of quality— the film holds a 39% on RT and record-low 1.6/10 rating on IMDb.
From the get-go, “Snow White” was mired in controversy. You could easily choose any of the following reasons for its downfall; CGI dwarves? Rachel Zegler? Multiple delays? Disney’s never-ending string of live-action remakes?
During a new interview with Glamour, Zegler, who played the titular protagonist, looked back at her experience shooting “Snow White”:
I love that film. I’ve seen it a few times, and it was number one on streaming on Disney+, so I know that it’s celebrated. What I took away from it is just to really, really soak in when it feels good and understand that it’s possible when it feels bad. The beautiful thing about Evita for me—beyond all of the wonderful people I met and all of the wonderful work we’re doing—is that I never thought I would be a part of something so celebrated, because of the way that I’ve been conditioned to believe that I wouldn’t be.
I mean, if you’re calling a movie that was endlessly ridiculed and lost over $200 million a success just because it topped the streaming charts… well, hey, whatever helps you sleep at night — stay positive! Or maybe Zegler just lacks a bit of self-awareness about the whole situation.
This interview feels like an attempt to rehabilitate her image and find her way back into Hollywood. Since “Snow White,” Zegler has only been attached to the indie-financed rom-com “She Gets It From Me” and a Gloria Estefan biopic that seems unlikely to ever get properly funded.
A recent Variety hit-piece threw Zegler under the bus and had anonymous sources, no doubt Disney-backed, blaming the actress for the failure of “Snow White.” The gist of the argument was that Zegler freely speaking her mind on social media about various political topics, including Israel/Palestine and Donald Trump, led to producer Marc Platt having to fly over to Zegler’s home to speak directly with the actress. She refused to take down her posts.
A year later, Disney did end up hiring a “social media guru” for some type of social media conditioning, or tutorial. This seemed to have finally worked as Zegler infamously apologized for some of her comments.