Rachel Zegler Responds to Criticism She's Faced: 'It Rolls Right Off My Back These Days'
- - Rachel Zegler Responds to Criticism She's Faced: 'It Rolls Right Off My Back These Days'
Bailey RichardsOctober 28, 2025 at 2:26 AM
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Rachel Zegler in October 2025 -
Rachel Zegler reacted to her past controversies in a new Glamour magazine article published Oct. 27
The actress reflected on media scrutiny and social media backlash she's faced while speaking to Helen Mirren
Zegler previously faced racist backlash over her casting in the live-action Snow White remake, scrutiny for calling the original “dated" and reports of a rift with costar Gal Gadot
These days, Rachel Zegler doesn’t let critics' comments linger.
The 24-year-old actress, who has faced various controversies over the past few years, opened up about her current approach to backlash in a new Interview for Glamour magazine’s Women of the Year issue, published online on Monday, Oct. 27.
On criticism, she told the outlet, “Honestly, I’m a duck. It rolls right off my back these days.”
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes star also shared a misconception about herself and others in the spotlight that she wants to clear up.
Monica Schipper/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty
Rachel Zegler at the Annual Academy Museum Gala in October 2025
"We just need to normalize our hearts’ not having boundaries,” she told Glamour. “I think that there’s this idea that we as public figures can’t have thoughts or feelings because we are like paper dolls to a majority of the public.”
Zegler also told the magazine what keeps her grounded these days, regardless of what is being said about her online: “My love for the work.”
Reflecting on her turn as a Disney princess in the live-action Snow White remake, in particular — Zegler dealt with racist backlash over her casting and later, reports of a rift with her costar Gal Gadot — she continued, “I am the one who showed up and did my work every day. Nobody can ever take that away from me.”
"I made lifelong friends on that job,” she adds of her experience on the film, which was released in March. “That kind of family doesn’t get dissipated by online discourse.”
For the Glamour story, Zegler chatted with her Shazam! Fury of the Gods costar Helen Mirren, who praised the young star for handling “all the s--- you had to deal with” with “such courage, grace and fortitude.” Mirren, 80, also recalled giving the then-rising star “advice about how to deal with publicity and stuff like that” on the set of the superhero movie, along with costar Lucy Liu. “It was very sound advice,” Zegler added.
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Rachel Zegler in September 2025
After Mirren stated that the West Side Story actress had been “thrown into a very unfair, deep end” from a young age, Zegler reflected further on her past few years in the public eye.
“Every experience I’ve had so far has been such a wonderful lesson learned. I loved working on [Snow White], and I love that film. I’ve seen it a few times, and it [became] number one on streaming on Disney+, so I know that it’s celebrated,” she told Mirren. “It was one of those experiences of sometimes negativity being louder than positivity.”
"What I took away from it is just to really, really soak in when it feels good and understand that it’s possible when it feels bad,” she added.
Zegler, who wrapped her London stage debut as Eva Perón in Jamie Lloyd's stripped-back revival of the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Evita last month, added that the “beautiful thing” about starring in the rock opera “for me — beyond all of the wonderful people I met and all of the wonderful work we’re doing — is that I never thought I would be a part of something so celebrated, because of the way that I’ve been conditioned to believe that I wouldn’t be.”
Courtesy of Disney
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in the live-action 'Snow White' remake
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Following her casting in Snow White in 2021, Zegler — who is of Colombian and Polish descent — faced racist backlash on social media over her being of Latinx background and playing the Disney princess. The actress also made headlines when she said in interviews that the new movie would modernize 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and that the original animated film was “dated.”
Zegler and Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen in the live-action film, also made headlines for reports of tensions between them.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
