Snow White, Rachel Zegler and a toxic debate that's not going away

Whether you like the new Snow White film or you hate it, it's hard to escape the debate around its lead actress, Rachel Zegler.

The 23-year-old star has dominated conversation about the film, as people either blame her for its poor reviews or leap to her defence, saying she's being unfairly maligned.

And this debate is not new for Zegler.

Way before Snow White came out, she has been at the centre of the storm, with many criticising her take on the original film and her political views, including those on US President Donald Trump and his voters.

Others defended her, and expressed discomfort at seeing such a young actress suffer a pile-on.

Film critic Kelechi Ehenulo calls Zegler a victim of "culture wars", and warns actors from underrepresented backgrounds (Zegler is Latina) often find themselves becoming "targets for backlash".

So how did we get to this point – and where does Zegler go from here?

Let's start with the film itself.

Disney's live-action version of the classic fairy tale Snow White was released earlier this month, and has faced a slew of underwhelming reviews (the Observer's Wendy Ide described it as "toe-curlingly terrible".) US reviewers have been somewhat more positive – but despite it topping the North America box office chart, it hasn't made as much money as expected.

On social media, some people have been quick to point their finger at Zegler, arguing she hampered the release.

They include Jonah Platt, the son of Snow White producer Marc Platt. Earlier this week, he took aim at Zegler in a fiery social media post. It has since been deleted, but was screenshotted by multiple outlets including the New York Post.

He said Zegler had "[dragged] her personal politics" into the film's promotional campaign, adding: "Her actions clearly hurt the film's box office."

Platt didn't respond to a request for comment from BBC News.

The controversies started much earlier.

Before the film was released, Zegler faced abuse online by people who disagreed with her casting in the role of a character deemed to have skin "as white as snow".

Zegler made headlines after her comments, in 2022, about the original film. "There's a big focus [in the original] on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! So we didn't do that this time."

Zegler also said the original film was "extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power", adding: "People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it's like, yeah, it is - because it needed that."

• Disney holds small-scale Snow White premiere amid controversy

Many saw those words as a rebuke against Disney's tradition.

The Daily Mail branded it a "woke tirade" and an article this week in Variety said she "trashed the beloved original Snow White".

City AM's film editor Victoria Luxford says criticism of the original film "was never going to work out well. These films are marketed on nostalgia, on making you feel like you did when you saw the original, so to speak of it negatively seemed puzzling".

Zegler declined to comment on this piece.

But Anna Smith, film critic and host of the Girls On Film podcast, told BBC News that some of the headlines may have be misleading.

"Zegler pointed out that times and attitudes have changed, and that the new Snow White has been adapted for the current age. This is the case with many remakes and reboots, many of which do not make the headlines with comments about 'woke' culture."

Zegler's political views have also sparked a backlash.

Last summer, she thanked fans for their response to the film's trailer in a post on X, adding, "and always remember, free Palestine".

According to the Variety article, Marc Platt - mentioned above - flew to New York to speak directly with Zegler after the post.

Neither Zegler nor Platt have responded to a request for a comment on that.

Zegler also stoked controversy with her views after the 2024 US presidential election. Writing on Instagram, she said she hoped "Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace".

She later apologised for what she had said.

Some commend her for speaking her mind. Ehenulo says that she is "not the first and certainly not the last actor to be speaking about politics".

And Luxford told me she was "hard-pressed" to imagine the film's core audience, children under 10, being swayed by her politics.

But film critic Conor Riley said that her comments about Trump didn't "help the stability of the movie's release".

He notes that Gal Gadot, who plays Snow White's stepmother, the Evil Queen, has also faced a backlash from some people. Gadot, who is Israeli, has been vocal in her support of the country.

The timing of the film also didn't help, he added.

"Ultimately, [Zegler] became a lightning rod for controversy, not just due to her own actions, but because Snow White landed at the intersection of Hollywood's creative stagnation, racial politics, international conflict, and America's deep ideological divide," he said.

Some, like Luxford, argue that some of the pile-on comes from "a place of prejudice".

"She's a young Latina woman with political opinions that don't align with certain groups, who are quick to voice their anger," she said.

Zegler is far from the first young female actress to find herself facing a toxic backlash. Recently, Stranger Things actor Millie Bobby Brown criticised press articles about her appearance, saying "this isn't journalism, this is bullying".

Smith notes that women in positions of prominence are more likely to be targeted in this way.

"When women in the public eye are criticised, there is often bias at work. Regardless of the topic, the way it's dealt with, talked about and reported will often differ compared to the way men are treated," she said.

Ehenulo, for her part, calls on the industry to do more to protect their stars.

"What irks me is how easy [people of colour] actors become targets for backlash on social media and yet the culture of silence from studios, news outlets and social media platforms says it all," she said.

"That lack of public protection... means the toxicity continues to fester and rise. It's the Wild West out there and I can't see it getting better when this has been normalised to such an extent."

We put those claims to Disney, but they declined to comment.

The big roles keep coming for Zegler. She is now signed up to star in Evita in the West End this summer, and on Friday, she made a splash in a different way - reading a CBeebies Bedtime Story.

At the end of the story, Zegler tells young viewers: "To be a powerful princess you just need to be wonderful, brilliant you!" For some, this is a message that encapsulates Zegler herself.

"I don't know if she's going to be doing another Disney film anytime soon," says Luxford, "but she's 23, she's a Golden Globe winner, and she's a very talented actor."