‘She Is So Deeply Kind:’ Snow White’s Rachel Zegler Reveals How Ariana Grande Helped Her Through Casting Backlash

When Rachel Zegler was cast as Snow White, it didn’t take long for the trolls to come out from under the bridge.

Many people complained that she was a Latina actress playing a character who had always been portrayed as white. And then the backlash got even louder, and more intense, when Zegler criticized a few aspects of the original 1937 movie. She declared in an interview with ExtraTV that the romance in the movie was “weird” and Snow White’s prince “literally stalks” her. Those comments snowballed until it seemed like half the internet was in a rage at Zegler. How dare she criticize an animated classic!

But Zegler kept a cool head throughout all the abuse, and abuse was very much what it was. She even received a death threat at one point. She responded to the backlash in an interview with Vogue Mexico, which Us Weekly has translated from Spanish: “I interpret people’s sentiments towards this film as passion. What an honor to be a part of something that people feel so passionately about. We’re not always going to agree with everyone who surrounds us and all we can do is our best.”

And Zegler had help navigating the world of Disney-loving internet trolls. She revealed in an interview with Allure magazine that none other than Ariana Grande, the star of the blockbuster musical Wicked, planted herself firmly in her corner.

“She reached out to me—kind of apropos of nothing—and was like, ‘If you need anything, I am here.’ She is so deeply kind,” Zegler remembered. “She has gone through so much in the public eye, and I have always really, really admired her courage in the face of all of that.”

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To say that Grande has been through a lot in the public eye is almost an understatement. In 2017, a concert she was holding in Manchester, England was bombed by a terrorist, causing her much trauma. Then, her ex-boyfriend Mac Miller passed away from a drug overdose, and some people blamed her. Throughout it all, there was troll after troll after troll coming onto social media and attacking her.

“Some of the s**t i read on here makes me sick to my stomach,” she wrote on Twitter during one incident. “It scares me the way some people think and i don’t like this world a lot of the time. if only we could be more compassionate and gentle with one another. That’d be sick,”

So Grande is really the ideal person to guide another woman through the entertainment industry. But Zegler also has a whole team of strong women on her side. “Jameela Jamil is like a big sister to me,” she told Allure. “I love that she has no regrets about being outspoken, about being strong-willed and strong-minded.” And she’s also friends with two Hollywood legends, her Shazam! Fury of the Gods costars Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu. “[They] have been my keepers in all of this, where I feel very held by them.”

Zegler believes that women in the public eye should support each other. “We’re often told that other women have to be your competition and I don’t subscribe to that,” she told Allure. “I really do believe in championing your friends and championing your coworkers, whether you’re close with them or not. So the second that there’s any intimidation or competition, just put on ‘Girl, so confusing’ by Charli XCX and talk it out. I’ve come to know that in the last couple of years, in search of female friendship in the industry, there is room for all of us no matter what anybody else will have you think.”

Wise words from a young actress who’s well on her way to superstardom.