Rachel Zegler responds to racist backlash she received after Snow White casting

2 February 2022, 16:00 | Updated: 28 March 2025, 11:58

Rachel Zegler responds to racist backlash against her Snow White casting. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Disney, Walt Disney Studios

By Sam Prance

Rachel Zegler is the first Latina actress to play Snow White in a live-action major motion picture.

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Snow White star Rachel Zegler is earning huge praise for her performance in the live-action adaptation of the Disney classic but sadly, since her casting was announced she's had to endure racist comments from people who don't think she should play the role.

Back in 2021, Rachel was confirmed to play Snow White and the decision to cast a Latina actress in the role was met with widespread praise online. However, there was also quite a lot of criticism because of her race.

Rachel has responded to the hate several times and now that the film is out, her previous comments are being resurfaced by fans.

In a past interview with Andrew Garfield, Rachel previously addressed the "angry" commentary and opened up about what playing the part of Snow means to her.

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Speaking about the role with Andrew in a 2022 episode of Variety's Actors on Actors, Rachel explained: "Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me. 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."

Rachel added: "Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you're talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale. She is really big in the Spanish language but you don't particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that."

As for the racist backlash, Rachel said: "Ah, those people. The people that we need to educate. The people that we need to love into awareness.

"When it got announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry. We need to love them in the right direction."

Rachel Zegler plays Snow White in Disney's latest live-action adaptation. Picture: Alamy

More recently, Rachel has also directly addressed the specific "skin as white as snow" line from the original Disney animation and the Brothers Grimm fairytale that people seem to have latched on to. (Many iterations of Snow White have existed over time and not all of them include that line.)

Speaking about the line and her interpretation of Snow White, Rachel told Variety: “It fell back to another version of Snow White that was told in history, where she survived a snowstorm that occurred when she was a baby. And so the king and queen decided to name her Snow White to remind her of her resilience."

Rachel added: "One of the core points in our film for any young woman or young person is remembering how strong you actually are.”