Rachel Zegler has taken the world by storm with her roles as Maria in West Side Story, Anthea in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and Lucy Gray Baird in Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. She’s also going to be in the 2024 A24 film, Y2K, and playing the titular role in the live-action Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is set to be released in March 2025.
There’s no question that Zegler is at the top of her game, but this level of fame can bring an unmanageable amount of hate and scrutiny, which the actress is, unfortunately, no stranger to.
Zegler’s media scrutiny began not long after she landed the lead role in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As a Latina, she faced a large amount of backlash from people who believed that the Disney princess should be played by a white actor.
She also received backlash after the D23 Expo in 2022 where she said that the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs film was going to have more of a feminist theme and that the princess was going to be strong and fearless.
Things seemed to get worse for Zegler when she told Entertainment Weekly in September 2022 that even though she watched Snow White as a child, she didn’t watch it again until she got cast in the role, which didn’t sit well with a lot of people. Some Disney fans felt that Zegler wasn’t going to do the film justice and became very vocal about it on social media.
Although the negative comments against Zegler eventually slowed down, they picked back up again in the beginning in the summer of 2023.
On Aug. 5, Zegler posted a cover of Katie Gregson-MacLead’s song, “Complex.” Since then, people have been relentlessly vicious towards the singer in the comments of the video and she recently clapped back with comments of her own, which now have fans worried about her.
On Feb. 21, someone commented, “How does it feel knowing you got an award you don’t deserve?” to which Zegler responded with, “Omg should I kill myself?” On Feb. 27, another user wrote, “Why are you still alive?” and she responded, “I don’t know man.” Her Campus reached out to Zegler’s team for comment, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
A Reddit forum shared screenshots of the comments, leading fans to question if Zegler is OK and to express their support for the star.
“I really hope she’s just being sarcastic. :(,” a Reddit user wrote. “The amount of hate she gets is scary… hope she is safe and doesn’t read this or lets it get to her,” someone else commented. “the hate for her is really bizarre and strange. this girl hasn’t even said anything crazy,” someone else wrote.
On Feb. 29, Zegler posted a selfie on Snapchat giving a thumbs up and captioned it, “gonna disappear i think.”
Fans believe that Zegler is going to stay off social media for a while, which could be good for her mental health by giving her some much-deserved time away from the internet.
I think I can speak for fellow Rachel Zegler fans when say that we want nothing but positivity and happiness for her. Life’s too short to spread hate and it’s time people start using the internet to show others kindness and love.
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. You can also reach out to the Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 or the Trevor Lifeline at 1-866-488-7386, or to your local suicide crisis center.