Actress Rachel Zegler, who plays the heroine in the new film Snow White, scheduled for theaters on March 20, 2024, is causing controversy on the social network TikTok. In September 2022, the 22-year-old American described the original 1937 work to Variety as “extremely backward in terms of ideas about women”. The outlet later asked if audiences should expect a more modern version of Snow White. “It’s not 1937 anymore. She won’t be saved by the prince and she won’t dream of true love. She dreams of becoming a fearless, fair, courageous and true leader. It is a truly incredible story in which young people around the world will find themselves,” she said.
These words, expressed nearly a year ago, are circulating on TikTok today. According to some users of the platform, the themes of romance and love in a fairy tale are not to be omitted. “I understand they want to make Snow White more self-sufficient, but there’s nothing wrong with being saved by a prince,” one user reported. “If productions hate the plot so much, why didn’t they create a whole different story?” said another account.
User thechickflicksshow responded to Rachel Zegler’s comments in a video posted to TikTok in late July: “You’re right, it’s not 1937 anymore. And you know what women no longer have to choose between their careers or the ‘love? We can have both.” “I’m a feminist, but we don’t need remakes where the original characters become feminist icons one way or another. In art, there should be diverse characters, but when every female character has a feminist icon stamp on her, the whole movie industry becomes boring,” user shikalord reacted in another video.
The new Snow White film is not its first controversy. Earlier this year, shots of the cast were unveiled by the production. The public thus discovered that Snow White was not accompanied by the seven dwarfs, but by “magical creatures”. Actor Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) denounced in January the stereotypes about people with dwarfism peddled in Snow White. “Do you keep telling this retrograde tale of seven dwarfs living together in a cave?” he said on the Marc Maron podcast. The Disney studios had subsequently expressed themselves in the columns of Hollywood Reporter: “We must avoid reinforcing the stereotypes of the original animated film. We are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have consulted with members of the dwarfism community.”
Some TikTok users also criticized Disney productions for casting Rachel Zegler as the lead actress. According to members of the platform, the actress of Colombian and Polish origin does not correspond to the character known to have skin “as white as snow”. The film Snow White is expected in French cinemas on March 20, 2024. The public will find actress Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), in the role of the evil queen.