Rachel Zegler finds herself at the center of another Disney princess outrage. But the way this particular one came about demonstrates the inner workings of a cycle for whipping up fury.
Who is she? Zegler is a 22-year-old actress and singer who had her breakout role in Steven Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story remake.
What's the big deal? That's a good question. A series of months-old interviews with Zegler have resurfaced and been turned into viral videos that are fueling negative reactions to the casting and reimagining of the story.
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What are people saying?
TV writer and producer Franchesca Ramsey on why she believes Zegler's treatment is out of proportion:
One of the things I really dislike about social media, but this app [TikTok] specifically, is it really thrives on negativity. And so now I'm seeing an uptick in videos about how much people dislike Rachel Zegler because she has theater kid energy and maybe didn't phrase herself perfectly. But in reality, she didn't say anything negative about the film ... I'm having a little bit of Deja Vu: Weren't folks upset when a Black woman was cast as a mermaid and suddenly it's, "Why not just make a new story, why did they have to change it?"
You don't have to be friends with Rachel Zegler. She's an actress. She's going to play a character in a movie that you will either enjoy, or not enjoy, or not see.
The 91-year-old son of the original film's director, David Hand, shared in an interview with the Telegraph recently that he thought the new concept was "a disgrace:"
It's a whole different concept and I just totally disagree with it, and I know my dad and Walt would also very much disagree with it.
They change the stories, they change the thought process of the characters ... they're making up new woke things and I'm just not into any of that. I find it quite frankly a bit insulting [what] they may have done with some of these classic films ... There's no respect for what Disney did and what my dad did ... I think Walt and he would be turning in their graves.
NPR reached out to Zegler's team for comment, but at the time of publication, did not receive a response. Here's what she has shared online:
So, what now?
Learn more:
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