Gal Gadot attributed the disastrous box office outcome of Disney’s latest politically correct live-action adaptation of Snow White to anti-Israel sentiment.
The film was embroiled in various controversies, many tied to its star Rachel Zegler, who faced backlash over divisive public comments, including ‘free Palestine’ statements and criticisms of the original film she was reprising.
Zegler’s portrayal was contentious as well, given she did not match the original fairy tale description by the Grimms, which depicted her character as having ‘skin as white as snow.’
The depiction of the seven dwarfs sparked debate too—initially cast with seven little people, the decision was changed after Peter Dinklage’s criticism. Actors with different physical attributes were selected ‘to avoid reinforcing stereotypes,’ leading to further criticism that resulted in Disney opting for CGI dwarfs.
However, Gadot—who, as an Israeli, served in the IDF as per draft requirements and has been a vocal supporter of her nation—believes the film underperformed due to rising anti-Israel sentiment.
‘I was sure this movie was going to be a huge hit. And then…it happened,’ Gadot, 40, remarked about the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks that led to Israel’s military response in Gaza, in an interview in Israel that has gone viral.
Gal Gadot blamed anti-Israel sentiment for the box office failure of the new politically correct live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White; pictured at this year’s Oscars
‘And you know, this happens a lot in various industries, including Hollywood. There’s pressure on celebrities to speak against Israel,’ she alleged.
Speaking to an audience of people, she said that ‘I can always explain and try to give context about what’s happening here, and I always do that. But in the end, people make their own decisions. And I was disappointed the movie was so affected and it didn’t succeed at the box office. But that’s how it goes.’
After giving the rest of her answer in her native Hebrew, the Wonder Woman star switched to English and concluded: ‘You win some, you lose some.’
In the same interview, Gadot insisted she ‘really enjoyed filming this movie,’ to which an audience member joked: ‘Especially when it wasn’t with Rachel Zegler.’
Rumors circulated last year that Gadot and Zegler had carried on a simmering feud over their divergent opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But when her co-star was brought up during her new interview, Gadot said: ‘I even enjoyed working with Rachel Zegler. I laughed, talked and had fun.’
In the run-up to the movie’s release, Gadot was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, while the controversies surrounding the project largely involved Zegler.
Jonah Platt, a son of the movie’s producer Marc Platt, even publicly slammed Zegler for her various political rants and revealed his father flew cross-country to ‘reprimand’ her for ‘dragging her personal politics’ into the film’s promotional tour.
The movie was dogged by controversies, many of them involving the leading lady Rachel Zegler , who came under fire for polarizing public statements
When the movie bowed this March, it bombed so disastrously at the box office that by the end of its theatrical run Forbes predicted it would lose ‘more’ than $115 million
In the months prior to the film’s release, Zegler faced online blowback for a string of splashy political remarks such as a ‘free Palestine’ tweet and a wish – expressed after last year’s American elections – that Trump voters ‘never know peace.’
When Snow White bowed this March, it flopped so disastrously that by the end of its theatrical run Forbes predicted it would lose ‘more’ than $115 million.
A large segment of social media placed the blame squarely on Zegler – a coda to years of gathering online outrage against her and the film.
Her initial casting in 2021 was a lightning rod of contention, as Zegler herself did not have the ‘skin as white as snow’ that the brothers Grimm had described.
The following year, while promoting her remake at an official Disney fan event, Zegler made scathing remarks about the original 1937 animated classic.
‘There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird,’ she sneered of the old movie. ‘So we didn’t do that this time.’
Another controversy took off in 2022 when Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage – who himself has dwarfism – denounced the percolating Snow White remake for having a ‘backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together.’
Almost immediately thereafter, the little people who had previously been cast for the movie were jettisoned from the project, with Disney declaring that it hoped ‘to avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film.’
Other actors with dwarfism then fiercely criticized Dinklage to the Daily Mail, arguing that he had reduced the number of jobs for actors with their condition.
‘It makes me so sick to my stomach to think that there are seven roles for dwarfs that can’t get normal acting roles, or very few and far between roles, and now they are gone because of this guy,’ said one of them, Dylan Posti. ‘Peter Dinklage is the biggest dwarf actor probably of all time but it doesn’t make him king dwarf.’
An on-set photo surfaced showing that the ‘seven dwarfs’ had been replaced by a racially diverse set of ‘magical creatures’ of various heights and appearances.
The photo was deluged with such a tsunami of online mockery that Disney initially denied it was genuine before finally confessing it was.
By October 2023, with the movie wreathed in a noxious cloud of derision, Disney delayed Snow White’s release for a year in order to perform a major revamp.
The film ultimately emerged with the seven dwarfs restored, but now rendered in CGI instead of being played in live-action by actual little people.
