Rachel Zegler covers Variety to hype her role in the latest Broadway adaptation of Romeo + Juliet. She’s Juliet. She’s also Snow White – Disney’s live-action version of Snow White comes out next March, and she talks a lot about the backlash to her casting in this piece. I didn’t really want to cover it last year, but there’s been a really racist backlash to Zegler’s casting as Snow White, because, you know, she’s a Latina. Too many “Disney Adults” could not fathom how a Latina actress could be cast as a fictional character described as “skin as white as snow.” Rather than just use their imaginations, they’re mad at Rachel Zegler. It’s insane. Anyway, she addresses that too.

She doesn’t like LA: “The reason I fell in love with this industry is not because of this town. In fact, I kind of can’t stand this town. I don’t like that there’s a town built around the industry that I work in; it’s stifling and isolating and weird. In New York, nobody gives a f–k.”

The backlash to Rachel’s “woke casting”: To [the critics], the actress’s Colombian heritage disqualified her from playing the princess from Disney’s 1937 musical fantasy, described as having hair as black as ebony and skin as white as snow. Never mind the fact that the character Blancanieves is just as popular in Spanish-speaking countries as she is in the U.S. “She was my mom’s favorite princess,” Zegler says. “When she was growing up, there weren’t a lot of dark-haired princesses, and that was the one she could relate to.”

She loved the version of Cinderella with Brandy as the star: “I grew up in a house where that was Cinderella. Obviously, we watched the cartoon. But a child’s mind is the most amazing thing, where it’s just like, ‘OK, that’s Cinderella.’ But the blond-haired, blue-eyed, blue-dress Cinderella from the 1950s cartoon is also Cinderella. Also, Hilary Duff is Cinderella in ‘A Cinderella Story.’ I was able to comprehend those things at a young age.”

That line about “skin as white as snow”: Zegler reveals that the new film has its own origin story for her name. “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. One of the core points in our film for any young woman or young person is remembering how strong you actually are.”

Watching women get torn down: “I’ve watched women get torn down my whole life, my whole career. We’ll watch it in the election that’s upcoming. We’re gonna witness that for a long time, I fear. Sometimes it can feel like we’re going back; it certainly felt that way when that was happening.”

She won’t leave social media: “I don’t like to give them the satisfaction of knowing they hurt me in the moment. You give them a lot of power by taking a social media break.”

[From Variety]

I really enjoy that comment about not leaving social media – she won’t give them the satisfaction of knowing that they drove her off of Twitter or Instagram. Seriously, f–k those people. That’s a good attitude to have, even if I also understand why people sometimes need a mental health break from their socials too. As for the origin story of the name “Snow White”… that’s fine with me. I accept that explanation and I hope that other people do too. It’s so funny though. My god, if you’re really mad about Rachel’s casting because of her race… please just grow the f–k up. Your feelings should not be coddled.

Cover courtesy of Variety, additional photos courtesy of Avalon Red.