2 days ago
Gal Gadot blames anti-Israel sentiment for Snow White's £84m loss
Gal Gadot has partly blamed anti-Israel sentiment for the £84m flop of Disney's remake of Snow White.
The film, released in March this year, was a live-action remake of the original 1937 feature-length cartoon made by Walt Disney.
It was marred by controversy after Rachel Zegler, the film's lead actor, said on social media she has been 'public with a pro-Palestine stance since 2021'.
Israeli Gadot, 40, who was cast as the evil stepmother, has now broken her silence about why she thought the film failed.
Speaking to Israeli TV station Keshet 12's The A Talks programme, she said: 'I was sure this movie was going to be a huge hit.
'And then October 7 happened. What's happening in all kinds of industries, and also in Hollywood, is that there's a lot of pressure on celebrities to speak out against Israel.'
Zegler, 23, was criticised after she shared the trailer for the studio's live-action remake online last summer, with the comment: 'And always remember, free Palestine.'
The New York Times said Mark Platt, the film's lead producer, flew to Los Angeles to have a 'heart-to-heart' with Zegler after her post caused a 'severe rift' with Gadot, it was reported at the time.
While Gadot stayed silent on the issue at the time, she has now said: '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.'
Posting on her Instagram account on Sunday, Gadot added: 'Of course, the film didn't fail solely because of external pressures. There are many factors that determine why a film succeeds or fails and success is never guaranteed.'
Among the films controversies was a flip-flop decisions about casting actual dwarves or CGI representations.
Bringing in Zegler as Snow White was also criticised because she is not white, despite the original German fairytale describing the character's 'skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony'.
Disney scaled back a lavish Hollywood premiere and cancelled planned interviews with the media following the fallout.
Talking about her role, Zegler also suggested her character was a feminist, prompting commentators to criticise the actress for trying to make the beloved fairytale into a 'woke' retelling.
Zegler also suggested the feature film was based on a different version of the 1812 Brothers Grimm fairytale.
She said David Hand's 1937 original animated film was 'extremely dated when it comes to the ideas of women being in roles of power' and admitted she has only seen it once.
'The original cartoon came out in 1937, and very evidently so,' she told Extra TV in 2022. 'There's a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird. So we didn't do that this time.'
