Live-Action ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’

[Stripes]

Another factor (I keep pointing out) is the employment relationship. Disney is pretty much done with Zegler and can even release her from any obligation to promote the film if they want. She made ill-advised comments, then disavowed and apologized for them.

With Carano, there was an ongoing relationship as well as (I believe) some type of spin-off in the works. She refused to apologize and doubled-down by resisting sensitivity training. Disney had ongoing contractual obligations to Carano that had to be either fulfilled or severed.

Disney has the option to simply choose not to rehire Zegler, but they had to do something one way or another with Carano.

Yet another factor is that Zegler has ongoing projects with Netflix and A24 as well, which makes things even more complicated. Carano didn’t have anything except Star Wars.

Disney would want to partner with both of those companies and make sure they issued similar statements at the same time.

 

[Farerb]

I don't think Disney expected Rachel to be such a handful before hiring her. She received praise for West Side Story, she seemed like a promising young star and they never had issues with their young actors before (Auliʻi Cravalho and Halle Bailey have always been graceful). I think had they known that this is how things would go, they would have hired someone else, but now they aren't going to change a film that's basically already finished and ready to go in four months.

Anyway, rumor has it that the trailer is supposed to be released this upcoming week.

 

[Stripes]

I don't think Disney expected Rachel to be such a handful before hiring her. She received praise for West Side Story, she seemed like a promising young star and they never had issues with their young actors before (Auliʻi Cravalho and Halle Bailey have always been graceful). I think had they known that this is how things would go, they would have hired someone else, but now they aren't going to change a film that's basically already finished and ready to go in four months.

Anyway, rumor has it that the trailer is supposed to be released this upcoming week.

Regardless of what Disney does or doesn’t do in public, there’s no doubt that they aren’t happy with this situation.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Anyway, rumor has it that the trailer is supposed to be released this upcoming week.

Having it play in front of Wicked, another musical fantasy, makes sense...along with the views it would get in front of Moana 2.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

They could almost release the exact same statement for Zegler they used to Gina.

For Gina the Disney statement was

“Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

For Zegler a consistent statement would have been:

“Rachel Zegler is not currently employed by Disney and there are no plans for her to be in the future, her social media posts denigrating people based on their social and political identities are abhorrent and unacceptable.”

These comparisons get dicey.

Also: a public break right now harms the film.

You don’t fire someone in the middle of a job when they still have access to make a scene, cause more harm, etc. You wait until the end of their shift and then fire them.

 

[LittleBuford]

It's not the statement itself. It's the context in which it was written and the likes to posts that disparage Gadot.

This accusation has more weight to it. It does seem that she is treating her costar as a target of her messaging, which is wrong and problematic.

 

[Brian]

That’s objectively wrong.

You can argue it was not advisable, but “wrong” is subjective.

It is objectively wrong to goad your Israeli and Jewish co-star when you're the leading lady of a hundreds of millions of dollars film. Why? As to the former, you should have respect for your co-star to not goad them publicly during a time when their fellow countrymen are under attack, and as to the latter, it does nothing but create animosity with those who find your position to be wrong, which harms the film and the studio.

For the purposes of this discussion, I am not saying that her position is objectively wrong. I'm saying that her publicly stating it in the context of her co-star is objectively wrong.

 

[TP2000]

I just want to point out again that Disney cannot fire Zegler at this stage.

I'm not an expert on this (as you know, I've made it very clear that I'm not an expert on anything except cocktail recipes and Disneyland trivia), but how does it work when a studio is launching/premiering a big movie and needs to use its starring actress in that publicity?

Rachel Zegler is the star of the upcoming tentpole movie Snow White. She is, literally, Snow White. There will be a press tour, endless interviews on TV and websites, a big splashy premiere and party at the El Capitan or Chinese Theater. Rachel Zegler will be the star of the show this February and March. So how does Miss Zegler not still work for Disney? Can Disney uninvite her to the premiere? Can Miss Zegler refuse to attend? And at what point do Disney's lawyers get involved in forcing her to be a part of the movie's publicity tour and marketplace launch?

I'm trying to imagine a Jungle Cruise Skipper who has a social media presence and/or podcast where he talks about working for Disneyland and being a CM and doing his gig of Jungle Cruise Skipper. And everyone knows his real name and who he is outside of work, and Disneyland fans get their picture taken with him when he's at work at Disneyland. And then on November 6th he posts to his popular Jungle Cruise themed Instagram feed “May Trump supporters and Trump voters never know peace.”

How would Disney and Disneyland management react to that? Does that Skipper get to keep his job? If not, why?

I'm struggling to see how Rachel Zegler ever gets another gig with Disney after the multiple messes over several years she has created for herself and her generous employer. But that she will likely still be involved in the publicity and premiere of this upcoming tentpole movie in March really confuses me. How? Why? And why can't these movie studios control their paid talent better?

If it can't be done by a Jungle Cruise Skipper, why can Rachel Zegler get away with it?

 

[LittleBuford]

If it can't be done by a Jungle Cruise Skipper, why can Rachel Zegler get away with it?

Good old capitalism.

 

[Brian]

Still subjective - even if almost everyone agrees with you.

Almost everyone agrees that 2 + 2 = 4. There are some who believe that is not the case. That doesn't mean that 2 + 2 = 4 is anything other than objectively true. At what point does consensus become reality?

 

[Brian]

Then perhaps you should be more considerate and specific in the language you use. After all, isn’t the issue of brash and reductive rhetoric what started this whole conversation off?

Palestine is governed by Hamas, as they were elected by the Palestinian people in 2006 after Israel pulled out of the Gaza strip. Therefore, I think it's fair to at least refer to Hamas as Palestinian, much in the same way that you would refer to Republicans and Democrats as Americans, since they are both American by allegiance.

If a country controlled by a particular political party/entity does something, it's not generally the political party that is cited, it's the country.

 

[TP2000]

Good old capitalism.

I'm not sure what that would have to do with it.

The answer seems to lie within employment policies that are either purposely inequitable, or simply ignored, at will by Disney's senior leadership teams.

Is there even a social media policy for movie stars in Disney's tentpole films? There's got to be a social media policy for Park CM's and the custodians that clean the Burbank campus and the cubicle drones that push out TPS reports every Thursday.

But there's also the issue that Miss Zegler will still be working for Disney this February and March as part of the publicity and global launch of the $350+ Million investment the company made in Snow White. Disney has simply got to rethink how they control their "stars", because whatever the current agreement is with Rachel Zegler isn't working.

 

[donaldtoo]

See, they let us wear ourselves out…!!!

 

[Chi84]

Almost everyone agrees that 2 + 2 = 4. There are some who believe that is not the case. That doesn't mean that 2 + 2 = 4 is anything other than objectively true. At what point does consensus become reality?

We're talking about opinions. Totally different. Let's just say it's your strongly held opinion.

 

[LittleBuford]

Palestine is governed by Hamas, as they were elected by the Palestinian people in 2006 after Israel pulled out of the Gaza strip. Therefore, I think it's fair to at least refer to Hamas as Palestinian, much in the same way that you would refer to Republicans and Democrats as Americans, since they are both American by allegiance.

If a country controlled by a particular political party/entity does something, it's not generally the political party that is cited, it's the country.

At least get your facts straight. The West Bank, by far the largest of the Palestinian Territories, is not governed by Hamas.

I don’t go in for disingenuous word games. When did I ever say that Hamas should not be considered Palestinians?

My position has been very clear: it is wrong to conflate a whole people with the vicious group that rules over a portion of them. None of us should have a problem with drawing a distinction between ordinary Palestinians and a group of fanatical terrorists, yet here we are debating the matter.

 

[LittleBuford]

I'm not sure what that would have to do with it.

Disney wants to make money from Snow White. As others have already explained, they’re not going to get drawn further into the controversy by firing its leading actress, who will presumably be called upon to promote the film. She is not expendable in the way that your hypothetical Jungle Cruise CM is.

Now clearly there’s a point at which Disney would have to cut ties with her. Perhaps she was close to reaching that point with her latest remarks, but she has since issued an apology, perhaps (and probably) under some pressure from Disney. For now, it seems, Disney thinks she is less of a liability than she is a potential asset to their efforts to promote the film. That may well change—for example, if she says something even more ill-advised in the next few months—in which case perhaps Disney will “fire” her. As things stand, however, Disney has made a different (financial and PR) calculation.

 

[LittleBuford]

Is it only the so-called West Bank that wants statehood, or is it all of Palestine, including the Gaza strip?

It's the latter.



You responded to my post:

saying:



Perhaps you misspoke in the above quote, but the Palestinian people includes Hamas, not only as a governing entity, but also as inhabitants of Palestine, making them Palestinian. My statement was that Palestinians used "the land they want statehood for to wage the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust", which is true by your own admission. It is just not worded how you'd like.

That's not to say that all Palestinians are Hamas. That's would be an outrageous assertion. But the fact remains that Palestinians did commit the 10/7 attacks.

You’re playing disingenuous word games, and I’m not interested in participating.

 

[Willmark]

 

[LittleBuford]

Very astute. Thank you for putting things in perspective.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'm not an expert on this (as you know, I've made it very clear that I'm not an expert on anything except cocktail recipes and Disneyland trivia), but how does it work when a studio is launching/premiering a big movie and needs to use its starring actress in that publicity?

Rachel Zegler is the star of the upcoming tentpole movie Snow White. She is, literally, Snow White. There will be a press tour, endless interviews on TV and websites, a big splashy premiere and party at the El Capitan or Chinese Theater. Rachel Zegler will be the star of the show this February and March. So how does Miss Zegler not still work for Disney? Can Disney uninvite her to the premiere? Can Miss Zegler refuse to attend? And at what point do Disney's lawyers get involved in forcing her to be a part of the movie's publicity tour and marketplace launch?

I'm trying to imagine a Jungle Cruise Skipper who has a social media presence and/or podcast where he talks about working for Disneyland and being a CM and doing his gig of Jungle Cruise Skipper. And everyone knows his real name and who he is outside of work, and Disneyland fans get their picture taken with him when he's at work at Disneyland. And then on November 6th he posts to his popular Jungle Cruise themed Instagram feed “May Trump supporters and Trump voters never know peace.”

How would Disney and Disneyland management react to that? Does that Skipper get to keep his job? If not, why?

I'm struggling to see how Rachel Zegler ever gets another gig with Disney after the multiple messes over several years she has created for herself and her generous employer. But that she will likely still be involved in the publicity and premiere of this upcoming tentpole movie in March really confuses me. How? Why? And why can't these movie studios control their paid talent better?

If it can't be done by a Jungle Cruise Skipper, why can Rachel Zegler get away with it?

Many here, including yourself, seem to continue to misunderstand how actors are employed by studios in the modern era. All SAG-AFTRA actors are contracted for a specific role (usually on a pay-or-play contract), not on-going employment. Its very rare for a multi-picture deal or even a "studio actor" (which no longer happens) where they working for one studio their entire career. That golden age of Hollywood stopped many decades ago. So once the actor is finished with production of whatever they are working on, outside of some appearances for promotion, they are no longer employed by the studio. This is both to the benefit of the studio and the actor, as the actor is not tied to a long term deal and free to do other things with other studios, and a studio is free to either cast them in new roles, ie a new contract, or cut ties with them and not hire them for future projects. I know this is baffling to many, but this is how Hollywood has worked for many decades as mentioned.

So actors are NOT the same as the Jungle Cruise Skipper, who works under an on-going employment contract.

If Disney was to do anything with Zegler for this incident as a consequence, it would just be to ask her to no longer promote the film and maybe put her on a list of non-castable actors for future roles. But there is no "firing" her as she is not actually employed by Disney right now. And there is no indication that Disney is even doing any of that anyways. For now all we know is that Zegler apologized publicly, maybe at the insistence of Disney, and that is it. We'll see if she is still used to promote the film come January, February, and March.

There are many examples of actors who have done dumb stuff over the decades. Many of them go on to continue to have long careers as there is usually a short term memory to this stuff. So I suspect that this too will pass and she will continue to have a career no matter how people feel about it, whether it will be with Disney in the future only time will tell.