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A video in which rising Hollywood star Rachel Zegler is apparently seen crying about backlash she received online wasn't recorded recently, despite some people claiming otherwise on social media.
Zegler, 22, has faced criticism for her comments during the actors' strike and previous things she has said about the 2024 Disney live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, in which she was cast as the titular character.
The West Side Story actress came under fire last week while in New York City at one of the Screen Actors Guild—American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) picket lines.
SAG-AFTRA joined members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) to go on strike after negotiations collapsed with major Hollywood studios over pay and reassurances about the use of AI in the future. Actors and screenwriters also complained their salaries did not correlate with the amount that content earns from streaming.
"If I'm gonna stand there 18 hours a day in the dress of an iconic Disney princess, I deserve to be paid for every hour that it's streamed online," the star said in NYC, as many criticized her for complaining when actors earn more than other film crew.
As a result, some people dug up videos where she described the 1937 Snow White film as outdated and said that she had only watched the original movie once in interviews during Disney's D23 event in September last year. The casting of the 2024 film also received backlash, which was described by some as "racist" because Zegler is from Colombian and Polish descent.
Some social media users have also found a clip from a video Zegler posted to YouTube on June 11, 2022, and claimed it was her response to the backlash she received from her comments during the D23 event.
In the footage, Zegler describes not wanting to "seem ungrateful" for her career, but she was suffering from online trolling and death threats, blaming what she said as "being taken out of context."
"That's what i signed up for, isn't it? But I never wanted to come off as me, being ungrateful for the opportunity. When i say that this is been the biggest adjustment of my life, like understanding the way my life operates, now, meaning who I am and the things that i've been so fortunate to make it comes with so much, so much ground that I never thought i would be able to cover," she explained.
"People think I'm doing poorly and other people think i'm doing it gracefully, and I don't think i'm doing well at all."
She added that it was hard to "to be inside my brain," but she was "so unbelievably thankful," while pinching herself over her new life.
"I can also be having the greatest time and simultaneously wishing people would stop sending me death threats and maybe that's a weird takeaway for this video," Zegler said. "I have a life... filled with a lot of beautiful moments and beautiful people... but it's hard. It's lonely. It's very lonely."
The video was posted to YouTube and was titled: "i ran away from my problems for 72 hours," which included various clips of Zegler on different days talking to the camera.
But one person on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, slammed Zegler as "the most unlikeable actress."
"#RachelZeigler the new #SnowWhite is the most unlikable actress I have ever heard...She hates her Snow White character, and after she came out against the original movie, she is now crying over the backlash #Narcissist," wrote X user John Ford.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more