Rachel Zegler said “nothing is worth innocent lives” when asked about the backlash she had received for posting in support of Palestine during Snow White promotions.
The West Side Story actor addressed the vitriol she received for her political position as well as the assumption she was to blame for the box office failure of the 2025 remake of Snow White in which she played the titular character.
“I can really only echo Hannah Einbinder in saying that a platform becomes a responsibility, and that responsibility is ours to use as we please,” Zegler told Hacks actor’s speech at a Human Rights Campaign dinner in March where she talked about Israel’s war on Gaza.
“My compassion has no boundaries, is really what it is, and my support for one cause does not denounce any others. That’s always been at the core of who I am as a person. It’s the way I was raised,” Zegler continued.
“There are obviously things that are at stake by being outspoken, but nothing is worth innocent lives. My heart doesn’t have a fence around it, and if that is considered my downfall? There are worse things.”
Zegler first sparked controversy in 2023 when she suggested the Disney remake would be more feminist than the original 1937 film. The 24-year-old, who is of Colombian descent, then faced further backlash from right-wing critics unhappy with the lead fictional character being portrayed by a person of colour.
In August 2023, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes actor expressed support for Palestine when she shared the first official Snow White trailer on X. She thanked her fans for their support, before adding in a separate post: “And always remember, free Palestine.”
After Variety revealed Snow White producer Marc Platt had flown to New York to speak with Zegler about her social media posts, his son Jonah wrote a lengthy post criticising the actor for allegedly “dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multimillion-dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for”.
Snow White opened to generally poor reviews, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey handing out a one-star review and arguing that “Zegler deserves better than the lazy, visually repellent Snow White”.
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Zegler and her social media posts were blamed for the film’s poor performance in some corners of the internet, with Russell Brand complaining about her “haughty” off-screen personality. Yoko Ono and Beatles musician John Lennon’s son Sean Ono Lennon wrote in a now-deleted X post that “she also acts like a spoiled, ungrateful and disconnected brat”.
Asked about the online conversation around her personality and beliefs, Zegler said: “It’s interesting. It’s really alarming at times.”
“I think a victim mindset is a choice and I don’t choose it,” she said about how she was dealing with it. “I also don’t choose nastiness in the face of it. I don’t choose negativity in the face of it. I choose positivity and light and happiness. And I do believe at times, happiness is absolutely a choice, and every day I wake up and I think I’m very lucky to live the life I live.”
Zegler, currently starring in the London West End revival of Evita directed by Jamie Lloyd, added that she remembered her psychiatrist telling her what she was going through wasn’t “normal”.
“That sentence did such wonders for me in multiple situations in my life,” Zegler said.
