š³ Ariana DeBose Claims She Had No Idea Her Post Was SLAMMING Rachel Zegler ā Fans Call Her Out!
Ariana DeBose has claimed she was not aware that a post she had reshared on her social media quoted criticism of her West Side Story costar Rachel Zegler.
DeBose had shared a now-deleted post to her Instagram on Monday which read: āNarcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.ā
The line was quoted from Jonah Platt, son of Snow White producer Marc Platt, who blamed the filmās poor performance on lead actor Zeglerās āpersonal politicsā and social media posts.
The new Disney live action remake of Snow White had a very slow start at the box office, making just $43m over its opening weekend on an estimated production cost of $270m.
The movie opened to generally poor reviews, with The Independentās Clarisse Loughrey handing out a one star and arguing that āZegler deserves better than the lazy, visually repellent Snow Whiteā.
Rachel Zegler in the Disney remake of āSnow Whiteā (Disney)
DeBose said on Tuesday that she was unaware of the quoteās origin and that she would start verifying the sources of quotes she put out on social media.
āI post quotes all the time and thought this one was meaningful. Will fully cop to the fact I did not do any research on where this quote came from nor did I know of the connection until it was pointed out to me,ā DeBose wrote on Instagram.
āI have no intention of inserting myself into a news cycle. This is not the first time Iāve posted about dealing with narcissism and it probably wonāt be the last, but next time Iāll be sure to clarify its origins first.ā
DeBose says she had no idea the line came from Jonah Plattās criticism of Rachel Zegler (Instagram/Ariana DeBose)
āNext time Iāll be sure to clarify its origins firstā (Instagram/Ariana DeBose)
It was reported last week that Marc Platt had flown to New York in 2023 to convinceĀ ZeglerĀ to delete a tweet sharing her support for Palestinian people.
In a now-deleted reply to an Instagram commenter who called Marc Platt ācreepy as hellā for doing so, Jonah Platt blamedĀ Snow WhiteāsĀ dismal showing at the box office on what he called Zeglerās āimmatureā social media posts.
He accused the lead actor of ādragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity forā.
āYou really want to do this? Yeah, my dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20 year old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for,ā he wrote.
āThis is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the filmās box office. Free speech does not mean youāre allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions.
āTens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.ā
Rachel Zegler made her film debut playing MarĆa in Steven Spielbergās 2021 remake of West Side Story, with DeBose playing Anita, a role that won her an Oscar (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)
The IndependentĀ has reached out to representatives forĀ ZeglerĀ andĀ DeBoseĀ for comment.
Zegler made her film debutĀ playing MarĆa inĀ Steven Spielbergās 2021Ā remake ofĀ West Side Story,Ā with DeBose playing Anita, a roleĀ which won her an Oscar.
Snow Whiteās lengthy production process was beset by controversies, unrelated to Zeglerās social media posts. The movie initially drew the ire of rightwing commentators after Zeglerās casting was announced. They argued thatĀ the LatinaĀ should not play a character that is referred to as having āskin as white as snowā.
Zegler further provoked traditionalists by arguing the plot needed to be updated as, in the original film, Prince CharmingĀ āliterally stalks herā.
āItās no longer 1937,ā Zegler said. āSheās not going to be saved by the prince and sheās not going to be dreaming about true love. Sheās dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be.ā
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