Rachel Zegler Admits She’s ‘Afraid’ of Paparazzi and Warns They Won’t Make Money Off Her: ‘I’m Not J.Lo’

Samantha Bergeson and Christian Zilko
·2 min read
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“West Side Story” breakout Rachel Zegler has some things to say to the paparazzi.

The star of Disney’s upcoming “Snow White” shared a message on social media for the groups of photographers who follow her around New York City. She explained how the media’s constant pursuit of candid photos of her has begun to make her feel unsafe, and revealed that she plans to wear the same coat every day to render the photos worthless (a strategy famously used by Daniel Radcliffe during his Broadway days).

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“Dear paparazzi in NYC,” Zegler wrote in a recent Twitter thread. “I am literally always wearing this coat. Is it that interesting?”

“Like, I really appreciate you all being nice to me, mostly because I’m afraid to tell you no because you’re a bunch of men and I am a woman alone in New York City,” she continued. “But I am literally always wearing this. I am always going to be wearing this if it’s winter in New York. I am always going to be wearing this jacket with jeans and some form of heeled shoe. It’s never going to be anything different. I hope you make a lot of money for your photos. I don’t think you will because I’m not J.Lo!”

Of course, the young actress is no stranger to online backlash. Her “Snow White” casting inspired some predictable outrage from certain groups of Internet personalities, though Zegler made it clear that she wasn’t going to let racist trolling interfere with her opportunity to play a Latina Disney princess.

“When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry,” she said in a recent interview. “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. Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale and all the stories that come with it. But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that.”

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