By Jason Bailey / Bloomberg Opinion
If you were to thumb through the entire slate of upcoming Walt Disney Co.’s releases, it would be difficult to select a film that sounds less controversial than “Snow White.” It’s yet another live-action remake of a Mouse House animated classic (the original was the studio’s very first feature), starring Rachel Zegler in the title role and Wonder Woman herself, Gal Gadot, as the Evil Queen.
At first glance, it looks like the very definition of a safe Hollywood product. Yet the seemingly innocuous project, which is set to be released in theaters on Friday, has become a culture war hot potato. The scrutiny it’s received speaks, loudly and clearly, to the choppy waters ahead for media companies and personalities who have tried to remain politically neutral in the Trump era. Put simply: These days, there is no such thing.
The picture first courted controversy in 2022, when Zegler was interviewed shortly after her casting announcement. Her (correct) assessment of the 1937 original as “dated” and “weird” because the prince “literally stalks [Snow White]” got Zegler no small amount of grief from rabid Disney fans. But, lest we forget, this was an atmosphere still influenced by the protests of 2020, in which social progress and American history were being challenged and grappled with. It was more widely acceptable to openly question Hollywood’s long-standing assumptions and frameworks of storytelling.
Things have, to put it mildly, changed in the two-plus years since. The toxic trolls who jeered Disney for casting Zegler, a Latina actress, as Snow White went to the polls to help put Donald Trump back in the White House. Now, with his administration literally attempting to erase people of color and women from American history, social conservatives are emboldened. They’ve resurfaced Zegler’s comments about the structural sexism in Snow White to once again critique the remake leading up to its theatrical debut.
But the actress fanned the flames with anti-Trump posts following his re-election, too (she later apologized). Her advocacy for Palestinian rights has also reportedly led to clashes with co-star Gadot, a former member of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and outspoken supporter of that country following Hamas’ deadly October 2023 attack and Israel’s campaign against Palestinian territories since then. Reportedly, that’s why the pair have been making separate promotional appearances in the run-up to the film’s release, and, in an all but unprecedented move, press were not invited to cover the red carpet of Snow White’s premiere on March 15.
Industry sources are buzzing that the studio is treating the picture like a poisoned apple; The Hollywood Reporter quotes one as surmising Disney’s strategy as “We need to get this thing over with.” But the forces — both in the film business and the world in general — that have turned Snow White into a studio headache aren’t going anywhere.Any mainstream entertainment that even glances at a worldview that isn’t exclusively white “cishet” (cisgender and heterosexual) male is going to continue to cause problems for the slow-moving motion picture industry. After all, Hollywood is just now getting around to releasing movies that were greenlit back when executives were chasing progressive audiences and reacting, at their typical snail’s pace, to the social movements that helped Trump lose his 2020 re-election bid.
And Zegler is neither the first nor will she be the last celebrity to use their stardom as a platform for progressive views; no matter a star’s personal financial interests or which audience they’re pivoting toward or away from. If anything, as the corruption, lawlessness and racism of Trump’s second term continues to escalate, some celebrities will feel more inclined to push back against what increasingly feels like the rise of fascism on our shores.
That tension gets even more pronounced when you’re talking about Disney, which has its own troubling history of rolling out the red carpet for Nazis. The company has played both sides of the culture wars over the decades. For example, on the one hand, it celebrated when boycotts from religious groups over queer-inclusive days at their amusement parks were fruitless, and it began sponsoring LGBTQ+ events and selling merchandise. On the other, the company rolled back plans for LGBTQ+ representation in its films and donated to sponsors of what critics called Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” laws. (Disney didn’t publicly denounce the legislation until pushed by protesters.)
Some might say this is just smart politics; spreading money and support across the spectrum, hoping to appease everyone and offend no one and prioritizing green over red or blue. But that tightrope is going to become more difficult for major media players to walk as the country becomes (somehow!) even more polarized and divided. Filmmakers, executives and celebrities alike must learn how to stand their creative ground when culture wars bubble up. Companies that create mass, mainstream entertainment are going to run the risk of alienating a portion of their audience, no matter where they land on political issues. Demurring is not an option; we’re at a point where “not taking a stand” is, in effect, taking a stand.
So buckle up, Hollywood. If you’re going to tick people off anyway, you may as well be on the right side of history when you’re doing it.
Jason Bailey is a film critic and historian whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Vulture, the Playlist, Slate and Rolling Stone.
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