Melissa Barrera has stepped up to defend Rachel Zegler, the star of Disney’s live-action Snow White, as she faces intense backlash over the film flopping.
Zegler has been under fire for her support of Palestine, which some people believe has contributed to the film’s underwhelming box office performance.
The scrutiny has been particularly harsh, with some media outlets singling her out as a reason for the film’s financial struggles.
Barrera knows firsthand what it’s like to be in Zegler’s shoes. She was dropped from the Scream franchise for her own pro-Palestine views in November of 2023. Her co-star Jenna Ortega and director Christopher Landon also left the project too.
On Instagram, Barrera shared a post that called out Variety for what it described as a “hit piece” on Zegler. The article portrayed Zegler as “difficult and politically radical”, but Barrera agreed that it actually made her look “cool as hell and full of integrity”.
Melissa also pointed out that the Variety article about Zegler was written by the same author who wrote multiple pieces about Barrera supporting Palestine — Tatiana Siegel.
Beyond Zegler’s politics, Snow White has faced a lot of criticism. Many were upset that Disney used CGI for the seven dwarfs instead of actors with dwarfism. Peter Dinklage also pointed out that the storyline in general was offensive.
“Literally no offence to anything, but I was sort of taken aback,” he said during an interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
“They were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
“Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way, but you’re still making that fucking backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together. Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”
Zegler also got flak for saying the original love story was “weird” and that Prince Charming was a “stalker”. Where is the lie though?
Despite all this, Snow White is still playing in cinemas and currently holds a 42 per cent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.
Lead image: Getty / Disney / X
