From Taylor Swift to Snow White, Every Time Rachel Zegler Said What Needed to Be Said

Rachel Zegler tells it like it is. Since the actress's earliest days in Hollywood, she's never been shy about speaking up for her peers — including fellow Disney Princess Halle Bailey and her favorite musician Taylor Swift — or herself. Like Bailey, Zegler has also been the target of racist backlash to her casting as the live-action Snow White, especially following comments she made about the older subject matter of the original 1930s animated film. But Zegler’s fans love that the 22-year-old star is firm in her convictions and unafraid to raise her voice when it matters most.

Below, check out 8 times Rachel Zegler said exactly what needed to be said.

December 2023: Zegler called out toxic fandoms and said online hate made her strong like “Teflon.”

If you've followed Zegler's career for a while, you'd know she's dealt with a fair share of uncalled-for hate. During a chat with Halle Bailey for Variety's Actors on Actors series in December 2023, the actor opened up about her experiences with online trolls and took the chance to call out how toxic fandoms can be.

"We're making things that make people connect with one another. And there are people out there who say things that make people want to not come together, that make people want to fight. And it's just not worth the time and energy," Zegler explained. "Choosing thankfulness and gratefulness is choosing peace. As much as you'd like to remind people verbally that being in the spotlight doesn't absolve you of your humanity — that you're allowed to have human moments — it doesn't necessarily do what you want it to do. It fuels them more."

Instead of fuelling the trolls, Zegler said she just reminds herself "to be present" and even gives trolls the benefit of the doubt, choosing to believe "they're probably just having a really hard day." (Now, that's grace.)

While calling out the toxicity of fandoms, Zegler also admitted some of the harsh comments she's received have actually made her stronger, as clichéd as that might sound. "I feel so thankful for those moments because it started to make me feel like solid Teflon," the actor explained. “[Like] nothing can hurt anymore because they've said the worst that can be said. You just say, 'Thank you so much for this. I have a lot of love in my life, and I'm very thankful.' We get to do our work and have that speak for itself instead.”

October 2023: Zegler defended Taylor Swift from misogynistic comments.

Zegler, a noted Swiftie, defended Swift after a rise in misogynistic comments regarding her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. “It's not news that the media is particularly (and unwarrantedly) cruel to Taylor Swift but the way men feel entitled to speak about women, their bodies, and their sex lives needs to be seriously evaluated,” Zegler wrote in a thread on Twitter/X in response to a particularly graphic podcast segment about Swift and Kelce where the host demanded a “sex tape” to validate the relationship rumors.

Zegler also pointed out the double standard that female celebrities — and regular women — are held to versus men. "You will never see people speaking this way about a man. That goes for a lot of different scenarios,” she continued. "We do not pick apart men's attitudes and relationships the way we do women's. And it's not always just men who speak this way about us. Women can and do, too. It sucks."

Shortly after her thread went viral, Zegler made a follow-up post: "Seeing a lot of ‘it’s a joke’ but you’ve got to understand that since the beginning of time ‘you can’t take a joke’ has been synonymous with ‘let me say a horrible thing about women without suffering the consequences’ — we’re sick and tired! It’s never been funny! Get a life!"

July 2023: Zegler struck back at racist posts about her Snow White casting.

After her 2022 comments about Snow White went viral during the summer of 2023, Zegler became the subject of racist backlash to her casting, with many citing the “skin as white as snow” line from the original Grimm Brothers' description of the princess as the reason Zegler shouldn't portray her.

Zegler didn't want to hear it. She posted a handful of photos of herself as a child in various princess gear, including a Snow White costume, saying, “Extremely appreciative of the love I feel from those defending me online, but please don’t tag me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting. I really, truly do not want to see it. so I leave you w these photos! I hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what." Her friend and fellow Disney Princess Halle Bailey showed her support, sharing Zegler's post and writing, “We love you so much… truly the perfect princess.”

July 2023: Zegler sparked controversy for her remarks about the original Snow White.

Zegler, who will play the beloved Disney Princess in the forthcoming 2024 live-action adaptation of the '30s animated classic, drew ire and hostility from Disney purists when she talked about how her film plans to update the character for a modern audience.

While at Disney's D23 Expo 2022, Zegler did two red carpet interviews in which she championed the 2024 version of Snow White as having "a modern edge.” “The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so,” Zegler said to ExtraTV with a cynical lilt to her voice. “There’s a big focus on her love story? With a guy who literally stalks her,” she continued, laughing. “Weird. Weird. So we didn’t do that this time… We have a different approach to what I’m sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie… It's one of those things that I think everyone's going to have their assumptions about what it's actually going to be, but it’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful.”

When asked to further define what “a modern edge” means by Variety, Zegler elaborated. “I just mean that it’s no longer 1937,” Zegler said on the same red carpet. “We absolutely wrote a Snow White that she’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love. She’s dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave, and true.”

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, which seems to have been filmed on the same day as the D23 Expo 2022, Zegler revealed she only watched the original animated film twice in her life and called the 1937 version “extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power and what a woman is fit for in the world.”

These comments sparked a flurry of controversy from both conservatives and die-hard Disney fans, despite the fact that in the original film, much of Snow White's story does hinge on her being saved by men — both the seven dwarves and the prince — and despite Zegler's costar Gal Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen, agreeing that 2024-Snow White's independence “makes [the film] more relevant to where we are today." Zegler became a target to those who took offense to what they perceived as her “dismissive” and “condescending” comments about the original Snow White, calling the actor “ungrateful” for taking on the iconic role, while others complained that Snow White was getting the “woke feminist” treatment.

March 2023: Zegler revealed she joined the DC Universe because she “needed a job.”

On the red carpet of her film, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Zegler told The Hollywood Reporter that she joined the DC Extended Universe and took the role of Anthea for a super relatable reason: she “needed a job."

“I’m being so serious,” she told the outlet. “The reality is we’re in the middle of a pandemic and I was not working and I couldn’t get a job for the life of me, because West Side Story hadn’t come out yet. It was really hard to book work for me.”

It also didn't hurt that Zegler “loved” the first installment of the Shazam! series. "The fact that they even wanted me to come in for a callback and then a camera read and then everything in between, I’m so lucky that I got this job,” she continued. “I made some of my best friends on this job. I just absolutely adore this movie, too, so I’m excited.”

September 2022: Zegler defended Halle Bailey against racist Twitter trolls.

Zegler took on Twitter trolls who tried to praise her while simultaneously bashing Halle Bailey, directly retweeting a post that said, “Hey @disney, I actually think that @rachelzegler is a good choice for the role of Snow White because she looks just like her. But @HalleBailey is #NotMyAriel. She can be the Little Mermaid on Broadway if she wishes, but not in a movie." Zegler was quick to respond, writing: “If you don’t support my girl Halle, who is the perfect Ariel, you don’t support any of us.”

March 2022: Zegler spoke up about not being invited to the Oscars.

The actor, whose movie West Side Story had been nominated for a handful of Academy Awards, revealed on social media that she hadn't been invited to the ceremony. When asked by a fan on Instagram what she'd be wearing to the event, Zegler responded, “I’m not invited, so sweatpants and my boyfriend’s flannel.”

When fans caught wind of the alleged invite snub, Zegler took to Twitter to set the record straight. “My goodness, folks!! Appreciate all the support, I really really do. We live in such unprecedented times, and a lot of work behind the scenes goes into making movie magic happen,” she wrote. “That goes for film productions (like the one I am so lucky to be currently shooting in London) and awards shows alike.” She then asked fans to “respect the process.”

However, after such public backlash, the Academy then hurriedly came through with an invite plus the opportunity to present an award alongside Euphoria actor Jacob Elordi. “I never thought that I would stand on this stage," he said during their presenter skit. Zegler didn't miss a beat, joking: “And I never thought that I'd be here six days ago.”

January 2022: Zegler got candid about her white privilege.

In an interview with Variety's Awards Circuit podcast tied to West Side Story, Zegler opened up about the criticism she'd received after being cast as Maria in the film; Zegler is half Colombian and half white. "Because I'm a white Latina, I hold a lot of privilege, and if that's the conversation people want to have, about my privilege in this industry, then I am absolutely welcome to have that conversation,” Zegler shared. “Because yeah, it falls on my shoulders to open up the doors for the people who aren't — or they are disenfranchised in this industry.”

According to Zegler, she is “more immersed” in the Colombian side of her family's heritage and culture and chafes at pre-conceived notions of her based on her background. “It's pointless to box people and say that 'you're not this enough' or 'you're not that enough.' What dictates that? Who dictates that? Why does someone else get to tell me what I am?" she questioned.

“I grew up in a house that spoke the language. It was never really taught to me, because there was this idea from my abuelita since my mom was a kid and when I was a kid, that you will be American," she explained. "You will speak English. You will go to an American school and you will get a good job and make money and have a family. And that's the life that's set up for you before you're born.” For the actor, her identity is hers, not anyone else's. “This is the way that I navigate through the world, and nobody knows my day-to-day struggle.”