Ethel Cain and Pedro Pascal are the latest celebs to throw their support behind Rachel Zegler amidst her continued scapegoating for the underperformance of Disney’s live action version of Snow White.
Zegler has been drawing backlash for Snow White ever since her casting was first announced back in 2021. At the time, the complaints largely revolved around racism — with “skin as white as snow,” the character should be played by a Caucasian person, her detractors insisted.
Since then, people have come up with new reasons to be angry about her involvement in the film. She had the audacity to point out that there’s some creepy stuff going on with the romance in the original that does not play well in a modern world. And drawing even more performative outrage, she said “free Palestine” on X (fka Twitter) last summer and later spoke out against people who voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
Her Palestine comment reportedly prompted an in-person scolding from producer Marc Platt (Ben Platt’s father) in addition to a continual pile-on from strangers online.
Now that Snow White is underperforming at the box office and the folks who love pointing fingers scramble for something to blame beyond “everyone is tired of these boring remakes,” Zegler is shouldering a lot of the flack. Never mind that she’s got a devoted fan base, or that Gal Gadot has become a flop magnet, or that pesky racism we mentioned earlier, or any of the other myriad of reasons the film has yet to make back its unnecessarily bloated budget. It’s easier to blame Zegler.
Fortunately, fellow actors have been showing support for the young star amidst this foolishness, both publicly and privately.
Zegler previously shared that former Shazam! Fury of the Gods costars Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu have been in her corner, as has Jameela Jamil, who is certainly no stranger to public controversy herself. She even said that Ariana Grande reached out to her out of nowhere at some point to offer support.
Melissa Barrera, who similarly received flack over her support of Palestine, reposted something on Instagram last week that denounced the way Variety was allegedly attempting to “paint [Zegler] as difficult and politically radical.”
More recently, Cain chimed in, sharing an Instagram story that simply reads, “@rachelzegler don’t let em get u down, legend.”
“ethel cain is always on the right side of history and i’m obsessed,” one fan replied.
Pascal made a similar choice, opting to share a photo of Zegler and writing “#icon” underneath it.
Right-leaning tabloids like The Daily Mail have already bent over backwards highlighting the backlash Pascal has received for taking a small (but meaningful) stand for Zegler. But considering his legion of fans and the number of people who are cheering on his public support, it seems safe to say he won’t be too bothered.
