A new report revealed how Disney attempted to restrain Rachel Zegler's social media activities in the months leading up to the release of Snow White and the fiasco that they endured.
The newly released live-action remake of the Disney animated classic underperformed in its opening weekend and is now set up to be a major box office failure.
The controversies surrounding the stars of the film have been cited by analysts as one of the reasons why the new Disney movie is flopping and potentially affected the audience's interest in seeing it in a theater.
A Social Media Guru for Rachel Zegler
According to Variety, when Zegler added "and always remember, free palestine," on her X post where she thanked the fans who watched the trailer for Snow White, a Disney executive raised concerns to the actress' team.
The film's producer, Marc Platt, flew to New York to convince Zegler to take down her post. However, she stood her ground and the post was not deleted.
"She didn’t understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal [Gadot], for anyone," an insider cited in the report said.
When Zegler shared her take on the US presidential election last year, Disney was alarmed once again as the post could alienate half of the potential audience in the country.
As a result, Disney paid for a social media guru to work with Zegler and vet her social media posts before the film's release.
So far, Zegler has not commented on the report.
Are Rachel Zegler and Gal Gadot Feuding?
There have been rumors for a while that Zegler and her co-star Gal Gadot have been feuding due to their different political stances.
Zegler has consistently shown her support for Palestine while Gadot, an Israeli actress, has sided with her country in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and showed support for the hostage victims in the October 7 Hamas attack.
Disney has also paid for additional security for Gadot, who has been receiving death threats over her stance on the conflict.
The report clarified that Zegler and Gadot got along during the shooting of the movie and there was no bad blood between them.
However, things only went awkward during the run-up to the release when Zegler called Gadot "a professional pageant queen" in an Instagram reply.
Fans have also noticed that Zegler and Gadot were being kept apart during the red carpet premiere.
In the end, Snow White did not overcome the controversies and backlash, and it seemed like it affected its box office performance when it finally arrived in theaters.
What do you think of the report? Let us know in the comments!
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