Disney's Live-Action 'Snow White' Casts 'West Side Story's Rachel Zegler

[LaLuna 12,732]

Literally one of my least favorite Disney movies getting the live action treatment? No thanks 

[Justin Drew Bieber 25,321]

She looks just like Snow White, great casting

[Born This Way 1,676]

I just wanna know who plays the queen, that's what will make me see it or not tbh.

[Chaymie 823]

Evil Queen coming thru. 

[MarryTheDay 599]

They also can cast an asian actress if they want to keep “ the skin is white like snow and the hair is very black “  so it still stand with the name snow white. 

[Chinosky 1,912]

Very happy that a *vocal* little monster bagged this! (and Star Wars stan lol)

And she went viral for this! 

 

[AJRocketMan 2,684]

6 hours ago, xlx said:

I bet that people who are so obsessed with Snow White needing to be white, probably wouldn't give two fücks if some non-latina was cast as Maria in West Side Story. Somehow they only ever care one way.

Not true. Most informed audiences definitely want film adaptions to be accurate to their source material. As a white Latino man, I definitely think it’s best for a Puerto Rican woman to be cast as Maria. That’s also why I believe it was inappropriate for Jennifer Lopez to be cast as Selena Quintanilla in the 1997 film “Selena”. Puerto Ricans look nothing like Mexicans and I think they should’ve cast a Mexican woman as Selena in that film, because Selena was Mexican. My mom is Mexican and my Dad is of Dutch-descent — Mexicans have very a different physiology from those of Puerto Rican descent and are generally more indigenous-looking. Even the white looking ones (as called Criollos) look super different from the white looking Puerto Rican’s or Cubans or South Americans.

Here’s Selena Quintanilla:

 

And here’s Jennifer Lopez:

Now, Jennifer Lopez did a great job acting as Selena, and out of all the Puerto Rican’s they could’ve cast as Selena Jennifer looked the most Mexican by far, but I still believe it would’ve been better if they cast a Mexican actress as Selena instead. And I hold the same standards for any film adaption of a non-cinematic story, whether fictional or not.

[Serial Chiller 8,044]

Mega corporation doing meaningless performative stunts to have woke people argue over how righteous they are. 

Disney has great entertainment values, but nothing they are doing right now can convince me they give a sh*t about POC.

Nobody should give a f*** about Snow White's or Ariel's race when POC and other minorities are suffering at the hands of these capitalistic consumerist overlords. They can be puke-green skin for all I care. 

[PartySick 139,036]

8 hours ago, Jill said:

It's not like that "skin as white as snow" is an important part of the story lol

It lowkey is though if they're going to make a faithful adaptation

https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/snow-white

There was once a queen who had no children, and it grieved her sorely. One winter's afternoon she was sitting by the window sewing when she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. Then she thought to herself:

"Ah, what would I give to have a daughter with skin as white as snow and cheeks as red as blood."

Though it's rooted in the idea that being white with rosey cheeks is what made her the "fairest of them all" which made the new queen jealous so if they retcon that story (and they should ) then Snow White's race actually doesn't matter to this new story.

Disney always changes these remakes drastically so I expect they'll leave out the whole "skin as white as snow" thing...because, again, they should

[PartySick 139,036]

2 hours ago, Born This Way said:

I just wanna know who plays the queen, that's what will make me see it or not tbh.

They should cast Gaga since Rachel is a Monster

[Jill 25,307]

6 minutes ago, PartySick said:

It lowkey is though if they're going to make a faithful adaptation

https://americanliterature.com/childrens-stories/snow-white

There was once a queen who had no children, and it grieved her sorely. One winter's afternoon she was sitting by the window sewing when she pricked her finger, and three drops of blood fell on the snow. Then she thought to herself:

"Ah, what would I give to have a daughter with skin as white as snow and cheeks as red as blood."

Though it's rooted in the idea that being white with rosey cheeks is what made her the "fairest of them all" which made the new queen jealous so if they retcon that story (and they should ) then Snow White's race actually doesn't matter to this new story.

Disney always changes these remakes drastically so I expect they'll leave out the whole "skin as white as snow" thing...because, again, they should

There is no point in making a faithful adaptation of anything. The tale is old as f.ck and should be updated for current audiences. The fact Snow White's skin is white isn't as important to the story as the dwarfs, or the final kiss, or her relationship with the queen/witch. The reason for her name can be easily changed and that part omitted, whereas the other parts of the story I mentioned are hard to replace without losing the essence of the tale.

[DelusionalGaga 29,266]

2 hours ago, AJRocketMan said:

Not true. Most informed audiences definitely want film adaptions to be accurate to their source material. As a white Latino man, I definitely think it’s best for a Puerto Rican woman to be cast as Maria.

I wanna preface this by saying that my comment wasn't targeting anyone specific in this thread but was more of a general observation. I don't doubt that you actually hold all sort of casting to that standard. But as you pointed out, that's only true for informed audiences. Most people defending Snow White's whiteness are not arguing for the integrity of a character but instead are just defensive of it because they perceive that some woke liberal mob is trying to turn all characters into POCs. If I asked one of those people IN THIS MOMENT whether they believe that Maria should be played by a Latina, they would probably answer "yes", because they are trying to make a point that Snow White HAS to be white. However, if isolated from this very conversation, Disney announced tomorrow that they are filming a live adaptation of WSS and they cast a white actress to Maria, do you  actually believe that those same people would rise up and defend vehemently that she MUST be a Latina? Because this kind of energy is usually only shown when a white character is suddenly played by a POC, not the other way around. Historically speaking, Maria has been played by white women and there were always some kind of excuses for it. Meanwhile, every time Disney announces a POC casting choice (Halle Bailey as Ariel, Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell, now Rachel Zegler as Snow White) there's a huge backlash to it. I guess my overall point here, while there certainly are people who just want some sort of consistency to a character, the big majority are making an argument in bad faith, because they are perceiving an imagined threat to their whiteness.

[KarmaPolice 4,716]

35 minutes ago, xlx said:

I wanna preface this by saying that my comment wasn't targeting anyone specific in this thread but was more of a general observation. I don't doubt that you actually hold all sort of casting to that standard. But as you pointed out, that's only true for informed audiences. Most people defending Snow White's whiteness are not arguing for the integrity of a character but instead are just defensive of it because they perceive that some woke liberal mob is trying to turn all characters into POCs. If I asked one of those people IN THIS MOMENT whether they believe that Maria should be played by a Latina, they would probably answer "yes", because they are trying to make a point that Snow White HAS to be white. However, if isolated from this very conversation, Disney announced tomorrow that they are filming a live adaptation of WSS and they cast a white actress to Maria, do you  actually believe that those same people would rise up and defend vehemently that she MUST be a Latina? Because this kind of energy is usually only shown when a white character is suddenly played by a POC, not the other way around. Historically speaking, Maria has been played by white women and there were always some kind of excuses for it. Meanwhile, every time Disney announces a POC casting choice (Halle Bailey as Ariel, Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell, now Rachel Zegler as Snow White) there's a huge backlash to it. I guess my overall point here, while there certainly are people who just want some sort of consistency to a character, the big majority are making an argument in bad faith, because they are perceiving an imagined threat to their whiteness.

First of all thanks.
This is clearly the way I wanted to go with the discussion. Not someone jumping on me, clocking and blasting me for expressing my opinion and making me sound like a racist.

THIS I agree.

For instance, I think that Maria should be 100% latina and if they casted a white actress I would be certanly enraged since it's NOT FAIR at all. However I still think there's something off about all of this. Disney is not being honest and truthfull. These castings are strategic and clearly made to create fuzz around the movie.

Just like I said, why can't they create a live action of Princess and the Frog directly? I'm not defending SnowWhite because I want the character to be white, I couldn't care less... And certanly I'm not protective about past white characters which can clearly cause controversy in nowadays. What I was trying to say is, Disney is clearly looking for publicity with the news about casting a black person for snowWHITE (and I repeat I was talking about HER and not Rachel).

I understand the importance of diversity, I don't know why people tried to make me sound like I didn't or that I wanted snowwhite to be white because "Oh my god, I'm white, the black community is taking over, what is happening with the world"... That's not me at all.

[PartySick 139,036]

1 hour ago, Jill said:

There is no point in making a faithful adaptation of anything. The tale is old as f.ck and should be updated for current audiences. The fact Snow White's skin is white isn't as important to the story as the dwarfs, or the final kiss, or her relationship with the queen/witch. The reason for her name can be easily changed and that part omitted, whereas the other parts of the story I mentioned are hard to replace without losing the essence of the tale.

I agree

The origins of her name are lowkey racist so I fully expect them to ditch it for the new one.

[Helxig 40,126]

Okay she is absolutely gorgeous but... are they just gonna paint her skin white? Is it really in good taste to paint a POC persons skin white?   Or will they totally ignore the fact that Snow White is pale as snow with blood red cheeks/lips? That's literally the whole character I-

I just feel like at this point they are shoehorning POC into every role to prove a point that they aren't racist which... kinda proves the opposite. It feels like Disney doesn't get the point of inclusion and representation. Just like the 10 different 'first every gay ever  character in a Disney movie' characters

Like I am 100% here for inclusion, I love who they cast as Ariel, but some characters are allowed to be white   it's not exclusionary to just have a white character where the story calls for it

 

Am I wrong here? Please someone correct me if I'm being insensitive to something or missed a point somewhere along the way