Rachel Zegler, the star of Disney’s upcoming "Snow White" remake is thanking the haters and critics who have piled in on her for comments she’s made critical of the original 1937 animated version.
"It started to make me feel like teflon," Zegler told actress Halle Bailey during Variety’s latest "Actors on Actors" interview series.
Zegler, who stars in the new "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes," described how she navigates the negative talk, saying, "Choosing thankfulness and gratefulness is choosing peace, and 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 and it fuels them more."
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Zegler attracted negative attention this year after a video of her slamming the themes of the original film in 2022 went viral.
Disparaging the outdated depictions of romance in the classic film at the 2022 D23 Expo, she told Variety, "I just mean that it's no longer 1937. 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."
Zegler told Bailey how she’s thankful for the critics, adding, "It’s choosing to be present and know that they’re just probably having a really hard day and I am putting out a movie. And I feel so thankful for those moments, because it started to make me feel like teflon, that nothing can hurt anymore because they’ve said the worst that they’ve said, and you just kind of say ‘Thank you so much for this.'"
"I have a lot of love in my life and I’m very thankful, and we get to do our work and have that speak for itself. 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 fight and not come together," she concluded.
Bailey also mentioned she was appreciative for heat from social media critics, saying "it turned out to be a beautiful lesson to me just to block any naysayers or negativity out and, for me, I found that it helped me, I used it to my advantage."
