Rachel Zegler and Andrew Garfield are the latest actors sitting down for a virtual chat as part of Variety‘s “Actors On Actors” series.
After bonding over their shared love of musicals, the focus turns to the “West Side Story” actress’ next big role as Snow White in Disney’s live-action “Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs”.
“Never in a million years did I imagine that this would be a possibility for me. You don’t normally see Snow Whites that are of Latin descent,” she tells Garfield. “Even though Snow White is really a big deal in Spanish-speaking countries. Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale and all the stories that come with it.”
The upcoming adaptation has faced recent criticism from Emmy Award-winning actor Peter Dinklage, who called the film “f***ing backwards”. While he applauded the casting of a Latina actress in the lead, Dinklage took issue with the “dwarfs” of the film. “You’re progressive in one way but then you’re still making that f***ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f*** are you doing, man?”
Though Dinklage applauds Zegler’s casting, some people took issue with it.
READ MORE: Gal Gadot Talks Playing ‘Iconic’ Evil Queen In Live-Action ‘Snow White’
“…[Y]ou don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that,” she tells Garfield. “When it was announced, it was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry.”
“Ah, those people,” Garfield responds. “The people that we need to educate. The people that we need to love into awareness.”
For Zegler, that’s exactly what she strives to do: “We need to love them in the right direction. At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess.”
Though Garfield may not be on social media, Zegler is and sees the reaction first hand. “At one point you just have to shut it all off and think, ‘If I’m not going to read the bad, I’m just not going to read the good either,'” she says, jokingly adding, “There are so many moments where I’m like, ‘I’m going to make like Andrew Garfield and get the hell out of here.'”
