Fambassador for the French fashion house.
The 22-year-old joins the list of big names representing the luxury brand in 2023 including The Batman actor Robert Pattinson, The Crown actress Elizabeth Debicki, Golden Globe winner Anya Taylor-Joy and K-pop star Jimin.
The announcement was accompanied by a campaign photograph of Zegler—who is of Columbian and Polish descent—with the West Side Story star’s skin tone sparking outrage online.
The response follows the recent controversy surrounding Zegler’s casting in the upcoming Snow White remake. In June 2021, Disney announced that Zegler would be starring as the titular princess in the live-action remake, leading to racist backlash.
Fans of the 1937 animation decried the studio’s decision—particularly on Gab, the social media platform popular amongst neo-Nazis. Black actress Halle Bailey received similar trolling in 2019 after being cast as Ariel in the live-action remake of The Little Mermaid.
Fans took to social media to lament Zegler’s “repulsive” Dior campaign shot, with one person writing on X, formerly Twitter: “The white washing is intense!”
“Why did they make her 5 shades whiter [than] she actually is???” asked X user @Annenowak12. “She is beautiful no question. But the whitewashing is crazy,” another fan wrote in response to the photo, sharing a red carpet shot of the actress with a noticeably different skin tone.
“Why did they give her the snow app filter,” wrote X user michelle, alongside a sad face emoji, whole Beanie said: “THIS is the woman theyre complaining about being snow white bc shes not white enough…”
“she looks withe af here whyyy do they always do that,” @abzzurdha commented.
Newsweek reached out to Rachel Zegler and Dior for comment via email.
‘It’s No Longer 1937’
First announced in 2016, Disney’s Snow White remake has faced a number of controversies and setbacks. Production on the live-action version was reportedly set to begin in 2020 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and didn’t start until March 2022.
Along with being subject to racist trolling, Zegler’s remarks on the new script for the movie—which includes a more feminist take on the original—caused uproar amongst conservatives.
During an interview with Variety at Disney’s D23 conference in 2022, Zegler said filmmakers were bringing a “modern edge” to the classic fairy tale.
“I just mean that it’s no longer 1937,” The Hunger Games star said. “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 going to be dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave and true.”
Zegler also described the original film’s love story as “weird,” calling out the prince for stalking Snow White. Her confession that she only watched the 1937 cartoon once as a child also angered fans, with the star claiming the original movie “scared her.”
YouTube footage of Zegler crying, reportedly in response to the backlash, went viral in August, with the actress saying her comments were being “taken out of context.”
“That’s what I signed up for, isn’t it?” she said in the video. “But I never wanted to come off as me being ungrateful for the opportunity. When I say that this has 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 added: “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.”
In an interview with fellow Disney princess Halle Bailey for Variety’s Actors on Actors YouTube series, Zegler said she was “thankful” for the backlash as it made her stronger.
Zegler’s star turn isn’t the only Snow White casting decision to cause a furor. Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage publicly slammed the remake, calling it “f****** backwards.”
The 54-year-old was born with achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism. During an appearance on the WTF Marc Maron podcast, Dinklage criticized Disney for progressively casting a Latina actress yet having a blind spot when it comes to dwarfism.
“I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” the Golden Globe winner said. “You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that f****** backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together; what the f*** are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box?”
The decision to only hire one actor with dwarfism to play all seven dwarfs also sparked fury, with Disney reportedly using CGI to create the characters.
In October, the entertainment behemoth announced it was delaying Snow White for a second time due to the Writer’s Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes, moving the film’s release date from March 2024 to March 2025.
