Disney’s live-action Snow White landed in theaters last weekend, and the numbers aren’t magical. The film pulled in $43 million domestically in its opening weekend and still hasn’t hit $100 million worldwide.
Reviews have been less than kind, but controversy has been brewing around the project for a while, especially regarding star Rachel Zegler, who has found herself at the center of backlash for both political statements and comments about the original 1937 classic.
Now, Jonah Platt, son of Snow White producer Marc Platt, has stepped into the fray, adding fuel to the fire with a now-deleted Instagram post that blames Zegler for the film’s underperformance.
The discussion stems from a recent report, which many have labeled a “hit piece” on Zegler. The report detailed how Disney allegedly sent Platt to New York City last August to ask Zegler to remove a “free Palestine” comment from a social media post promoting the film.
After a commenter criticized Platt’s involvement, calling him “creepy as hell” for trying to police Zegler’s statements, Jonah Platt fired back:
“You really want to do this? Yeah, my dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20-year-old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for.”
Platt didn’t stop there. He went on to argue that Zegler’s actions directly harmed the movie’s success:
“This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office. Free speech does not mean you’re allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions.
“Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and blue-collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.”
His comments have, unsurprisingly, sparked a heated debate. Some agree with his take, arguing that actors should keep personal politics separate from their promotional duties, while others see his remarks as an unfair scapegoating of a young actress in a film that had plenty of challenges beyond its lead star.
As of now, neither Disney nor representatives for Jonah or Marc Platt have issued any further statements. One thing’s for sure: the conversation around Snow White isn’t dying down anytime soon.
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