Fact Check: Disney Officially Fires Rachel Zegler from 'Snow White' Live-Action Movie?
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Claim:
Disney fired actor Rachel Zegler from her role as Snow White in the live-action movie adaptation of the same name.
Rating:
On Sept. 25, 2023, the Disney fan blog known as Inside the Magic published an article with the headline, "Disney Officially Fires Rachel Zegler from 'Snow White' Live Action, Report Claims."
The live-action film "Snow White" is slated for a theatrical release on March 22, 2024. The movie stars "West Side Story" actor Rachel Zegler as Snow White and Gal Gadot ("Wonder Woman") as the Evil Queen.
As for the headline from Inside the Magic, 12 paragraphs into the article, the story simply cited a lone TikTok user's video as its evidence for the alleged firing. Four paragraphs later, the author of the article wrote that "there is no source stated for this information in the video, so it is still a reported statement and not fully confirmed."
In other words, while it's entirely possible that Zegler or another actor in the upcoming live-action "Snow White" film (or any movie, for that matter) could be replaced in the future, we have yet to find any demonstrable evidence to support this rumor.
We reached out to Disney to ask about Zegler's role in "Snow White" and will update this article if we receive more details.
The TikTok Video
The TikTok video cited by Inside the Magic has been viewed more than 2.4 million times.
The clip came from a user whose bio showed no signs of being an entertainment journalist, a gossip columnist or anything else that might lend credibility to the statements being made.
The context of why Zegler purportedly would be removed from "Snow White" was this: In recent months, she had drawn some backlash from users on TikTok and other social media platforms after at least two sets of remarks resurfaced from interviews that took place in 2022.
Comments from Variety Interview
In a video interview from Variety that was conducted at the official Disney fan expo known as D23 in early September 2022, Zegler said that she had cried out of happiness after seeing her name with the logo for the upcoming movie. She then praised several crew members for their efforts on the film. These initial remarks from the interview were not as widely shared on social media as the comments that followed.
In the second half of the interview clip, Zegler was asked about the "modern edge" the story would feature that she had apparently referred to while on stage at the expo. In her answer, she referenced the 1937 Disney animated classic, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs":
VARIETY: You said you were bringing a modern edge to it on stage. What do you mean by that?
ZEGLER: I just mean that it's no longer 1937, and we absolutely wrote a "Snow White" that is...
GADOT: She's not going to be saved by the prince.
ZEGLER: She's not going to be saved by the prince and she's not going to be dreaming about true love. She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be, and the leader that her late father told her that she could be, if she was fearless, fair, brave and true. And so, it's just a really incredible story for, I think, young people everywhere to see themselves in.
Remarks from EW Interview
In a second video interview with Entertainment Weekly (EW) that was posted on Sept. 26, 2022, Zegler said that the original 1937 film had "scared" her, referring to when she was a young child. The pair praised some of the film's crew, just as they had done in the Variety interview. Then, she and Gadot echoed similar remarks that were made in the previous interview:
ZEGLER: The reality is that the cartoon was made 85 years ago, and therefore, it's extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power, and what a woman had stood for in the world. And so when we came to reimagining the actual role of Snow White, it became about "the fairest of them all," meaning who is the most just, and who can become a fantastic leader, and the reality is, you know, Snow White has to learn a lot of lessons about coming into her own power before she can come into power over a kingdom.
GADOT: Also, the fact that she's not going to be saved by the prince, and she's the proactive one, and she's the one who'll set the terms, is what makes it so relevant to where we are today.
These comments begin at the 4:53 mark in the video interview:
For further reading, we previously reported about a rumor that claimed this very same "Snow White" movie had been canceled altogether. We also published research for another story that sought to find out whether or not the character of Snow White truly was named for her physical appearance.
Sources:
Brown, Lillian. "Controversial Live-Action 'Snow White' Dumps Seven Dwarfs." Parade: Entertainment, Recipes, Health, Life, Holidays, Sept. 15, 2023, https://parade.com/movies/snow-white-live-action-movie.
Liles, Jordan. "Did Disney Cancel the Upcoming Live-Action 'Snow White' Movie?" Snopes, Aug. 18, 2023, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/disney-cancel-snow-white-live-action-film/.
---. "Snow White: The Origins and Meaning Behind the Name." Snopes, July 6, 2021, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/snow-white-name/.
"Rachel Zegler & Gal Gadot on Reimagining 'Snow White.'" YouTube, Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 26, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDBdoafhIfE.
"Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot on Bringing a New Modern Edge to 'Snow White.'" YouTube, Variety, Sept. 9, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RVg3yetTE4.
Rosenblatt, Kalhan. "Rachel Zegler Stirs Viral Backlash after Comments Resurface about 'Snow White' Remake." NBC News, Aug. 14, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/rachel-zegler-viral-backlash-snow-white-disney-live-action-rcna99848.
