A Timeline of Rachel Zegler’s Career and Controversies

How can also you be inflamed at this face?
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photographs: Everett Sequence (Walt Disney Studios, twentieth Century Fox)

Rachel Zegler is merely 24 years dilapidated, nevertheless she’s already been in the heart of ample Hollywood controversies to final a lifetime. The young actress has by no formulation had a vital venture circulation without some sort of scandal dominating the sage. From her profession beginnings alongside Ansel Elgort in Steven Spielberg’s West Aspect Memoir, by map of her most recent starring characteristic in Jamie Lloyd’s Evita, Zegler’s public sage has been defined not by her (big) expertise nevertheless by a whole lot of tangential squabbles. She’s been compelled to answer to for male co-stars who fill sexually confused ladies and denied vaccines, anti-sort conservative hate campaigns, and even the inventive selections of her most recent West Close musical, Evita. But how noteworthy has she herself contributed to the sage? Under, a stout timeline of Zegler’s profession and the controversies following her from the initiate up.

January 14, 2019: Rachel Zegler, easy a high-schooler, is solid in Steven Spielberg’s West Aspect Memoir remake, alongside Ansel Elgort as her lover, Tony; Ariana DeBose as her sister-in-legislation and finest pal, Anita; Mike Faist as Tony’s pal Riff; and David Alvarez as her brother, Bernardo, per Lower-off date. She is 17 and wins the characteristic out of 30,000 candidates. “I am so thrilled to be playing the enduring characteristic of Maria alongside this ideal solid,” Zegler says in her first-ever public commentary. “West Aspect Memoir changed into the major musical I encountered with a Latina lead persona. As a Colombian American, I am humbled by the different to play a characteristic which formulation so noteworthy to the Hispanic team.”

October 4, 2019: Fans accuse Zegler of home-wrecking her co-superstar Ansel Elgort’s then-relationship after filming wraps. “There in actuality aren’t ample words to train the pleasure I fill in Ansel’s allege and elegance and literal magic he possesses on mask and off,” Zegler tweets. “Falling in adore with him changed into easy. Jubilant wrap mi amor; ranking ya on a fireplace speed sometime rapidly.” Nonetheless, she then deletes the tweet, per E! On-line, because followers accuse her of inserting herself into Elgort’s relationship with his high-college sweetheart, Violetta Komyshan. Zegler responds to the allegations in an Instagram Memoir. “The truth that i must state one thing is in actuality absurd. nevertheless the DMs and the title-calling and throwing around the note homewrecker over me expressing staunch adore i fill for my coworker is heartbreaking and that i don’t desire any piece of it,” she says. “So peace for now, i wager. be nice.” She adds that “The data superhighway has made me upset so goodbye for a tiny bit be nice to one any other.” It is her first time responding to an argument.

June 19, 2020: Zegler’s co-superstar Elgort is accused of sexual assault of a minor on (then) Twitter. Diversified ladies immediate follow, including one lady who claims that Elgort sent her dick pics when she changed into in eighth grade. In a since-deleted commentary on his Instagram, Elgort says that “As I glimpse again at my attitude, I am disgusted and deeply ashamed of the formulation I acted,” nevertheless maintains that “I fill by no formulation and would by no formulation assault somebody.” He’s easy in the movie.

June 22, 2021: Ahead of West Aspect Memoir even opens in theaters, Zegler is solid in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remake, per Lower-off date. She shares a video on Twitter of her “meeting” Snow White, captioned “homegirl now we fill LOTS to ranking up on.” Nearly proper now, she begins trending on Twitter, with Disney followers complaining that a Latina changed into solid in a characteristic with “snow white” pores and skin. “Certain, I am Snow White. No, I am not bleaching my pores and skin for the characteristic,” Zegler tweets, then deletes, per BuzzFeed.

December 10, 2021: West Aspect Memoir premieres in theaters. The movie gets definite reports, with the Fresh York Times announcing Zegler “sings some of doubtlessly the most difficult numbers with stout-throated authority.” The movie is subsequently catapulted into the Oscars flee, with Zegler doing press in the route of the campaign.

January 26, 2022: In the heart of their campaign, Zegler is requested about Elgort’s allegations. “We made a movie two and a half of years ago, and lots has long gone on on the earth since then,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Loads has changed very publicly, and privately as smartly. There’s been a whole lot of awakening. You merely hope that the of us alive to are good sufficient, that they are requested in a respectful formulation and that they are given the different to answer to for themselves.”

March 19, 2022: West Aspect Memoir can be nominated for Most productive Portray, nevertheless Zegler isn’t invited to the Oscars. While shooting Snow White in London, Zegler unearths her lack of an invitation by replying to a notify on her hold Instagram put up. “i am going to root for west facet sage from my couch and be happy with the work we so tirelessly did 3 years gallop,” she writes in a since-deleted notify, per BuzzFeed. “i am hoping some final minute miracle occurs and that i’m in a position to celebrate our movie in particular person nevertheless hiya, that’s how it goes in most cases, i wager. thanks for the full shock and outrage — i’m upset, too. nevertheless that’s good sufficient. so happy with our movie.”

March 20, 2022: Outrage erupts over her lack of invite. One Day at a Time showrunner Gloria Calderón Kellett tweets at ABC: “How regarding the uncommon time that Latine of us fill a movie nominated for an OSCAR you invite the lead. Latine of us are 18.5% of this nation. ENOUGH!” Zegler responds to the firestorm on Twitter. “my goodness, of us!!” she writes. “worship the full enhance, i in actuality in actuality assemble. we stay in such remarkable times, and a whole lot of labor in the again of the scenes goes into making movie magic happen. that goes for movie productions (adore the one I am so lucky to be in the intervening time shooting in london) and awards reveals alike. let’s all merely recognize the route of and that i’ll discover off my phone.”

March 21, 2022: Zegler rankings an invitation anyway! After making her invite-much less region public on Instagram, Zegler gets requested to present at the Oscars, per The Hollywood Reporter. She in a roundabout map does present on March 27 at the awards repeat.

April 19, 2022: Zegler responds to being requested about Elgort’s allegations for the major time in an interview with Elle. “It changed into a proper gut punch, honestly,” Zegler says. “I reverted again to this mind space I changed into in (again in) June of 2020, when the accusation surfaced. We were in the heart of the major wave of lockdown, and there changed into nothing to assemble nevertheless doomscroll. As we tell were a few of the worst psychological-health days I’ve ever had. I changed into sitting there having merely turned 19, on the precipice of what changed into promised to be the splendid moment in my existence, and changed into being held in cost (by the public) for accusations that not most efficient had nothing to assemble with me nevertheless were made just a few allege that changed into said to fill occurred (5) years outdated to after I had met and labored with this particular person. And not utilizing a idea to the very fact that I changed into additionally 17 after I met this particular person, 17 after I labored with them, 17 and 18 after I had to assemble adore scenes.”

September 11, 2022: Zegler says the words that will arrive again to hold-out her again and again in the route of the Snow White press tour. “The conventional wintry though-provoking movie came out in 1937 and in actuality evidently so,” she tells Extra in the route of the D23 Expo 2022. “There’s a large address her adore sage with a man who literally stalks her. Unprecedented! Unprecedented. So we didn’t assemble that this time.” She promises that “now we fill a determined solution to what I’m obvious a whole lot of of us will judge is a adore sage merely because we solid a man in the movie, Andrew Burnap, colossal dude … But it’s in actuality not regarding the adore sage in any recognize, which is in actuality, in actuality excellent … All of Andrew’s scenes can also discover lower, who is aware of? It’s Hollywood, tiny one! It’s an inner stride that she goes on to search out her merely self and she or he meets a whole lot of of us alongside the formulation that makes the stride in actuality wonderful.” Without lengthen, a long way-merely pundits answer, and the quote is outdated as ammo against her shifting ahead. “Disney is making an strive a truly engaging marketing and marketing strategy where the superstar of the unusual Snow White spends a year sooner than the movie’s unlock publicly speaking about how noteworthy she despises Snow White,” conservative blogger Matt Walsh proper now tweets in response, environment the tone for the remaining of the Snow White press tour.

March 15, 2023: While attending the premiere of her superhero movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Zegler gets requested why she chose to assemble the movie. “The truth changed into we were in the heart of a virus and I changed into not working and I couldn’t discover a job for the existence of me because West Aspect Memoir hadn’t arrive out but, and it changed into in actuality not easy to book work for me,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter on the crimson carpet. “So I changed into in actuality inflamed when this came into my inbox.” Can’t blame the girl for lack of honesty.

July 15, 2023: The discourse about Snow White squaddies on, nevertheless Zegler makes an strive to tap out. “extraordinarily appreciative of the adore i in actuality feel from these defending me on-line, nevertheless please don’t designate me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting,” Zegler requests on X. “i in actuality, in actuality assemble not are looking out for to glimpse it.”

August 12, 2024: The trailer for Snow White comes out. Zegler tweets her thanks “for the adore and for 120m views on our trailer in barely 24 hours! what a whirlwind.” Then, she replies to herself, announcing “and progressively endure in thoughts, free palestine.” That notify is picked apart by Israeli and conservative shops, including the Jerusalem Post and Fox Files. She is specifically contrasted to her Israeli co-superstar Gal Gadot, who served in the IDF. “Rachel Zegler is trolling her rather more infamous and vivid Snow White co-superstar Gal Gadot,” Newsweek contributor Joel M. Petlin says in her replies, garnering over 8,000 likes. “Disney continues to hire the inaccurate actors to indicate their designate. As a replacement of promoting a movie, they resolve to embarrass themselves and the studio.”

September 30, 2024: Zegler’s Shazam! co-superstar Zachary Levi endorses Donald Trump for president after his chosen candidate, RFK Jr., drops out of the flee, and Zegler unfollows him on Instagram.

November 13, 2024: While Zegler is starring as Juliet on Broadway in Romeo + Juliet, Donald Trump is reelected. She posts a prolonged response on Instagram Stories, announcing that there is a “deep, deep illness” in the U.S., per The Guardian. She desires “Also can Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself by no formulation know peace” and ends her commentary, announcing, “Fuck Donald Trump.” Conservatives again gallop after her, with Megyn Kelly calling Zegler a “pig.”

November 15, 2024: Zegler apologizes for her anti-Trump feedback. “Howdy all americans, I may perchance presumably well presumably adore to sincerely thunder feel sorry about for the election put up I shared on my Instagram final week. I let my emotions discover the finest of me,” Zegler writes, per Range. “Hatred and madden fill caused us to transfer additional and additional a long way from peace and figuring out, and I am sorry I contributed to the negative discourse.”

March 15, 2025: The Snow White premiere doesn’t encompass any exterior press, and it’s a long way speculated that Disney chose not to enable journalists to steer definite of Zegler or Gadot being requested about Israel and Palestine. The movie is universally panned by reviewers, nevertheless Zegler’s efficiency is constantly introduced up because the movie’s inventive high point. “Irrespective of being set up up as a tumble gal by the studio,” Vulture critic Alison Willmore notes in her overview, “(Zegler) affords wonderful princess face whereas communing with CGI animals and belting out the chorus of the remake’s newly added ‘I Wish’ tune.”

March 25, 2025: After Snow White bombs in the sphere office, Zegler receives the lion’s fragment of the blame in a controversial document by Range’s Tatiana Siegel. The document unearths that, after Zegler in the starting up tweeted about Palestine in 2024, producer Marc Platt flew to glimpse her and tried to persuade her to take down the put up. “She didn’t designate the repercussions of her actions as a long way as what that meant for the movie, for Gal, for somebody,” an insider tells Siegel, even supposing Zegler’s advise connection to the movie’s field-office woes is circuitously established.

March 27, 2025: Platt’s son Jonah Platt (particularly not his more infamous son Ben Platt) goes after Zegler on social media. “My dad, the producer of (an) big piece of Disney IP with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bucks on the toll road, had to leave his family to hover all the map by map of the nation to reprimand his 20 year dilapidated worker for dragging her private politics into the heart of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million greenback contract to receives a commission and assemble publicity for,” Platt writes in a since-deleted notify, per Other folks. “Here is idea as grownup responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly damage the movie’s field office.”

June 18, 2025: Zegler begins performances as Eva Perón in director Jamie Lloyd’s Evita on London’s West Close. In the heart of the climactic tune, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” Zegler as Perón sings from the theater’s balcony to a toll road of of us whereas a camera initiatives her efficiency stay into the theater. By hook or by crook, this is became an argument directed at Zegler, who didn’t advise the repeat. “Rachel Zegler faces backlash for performing musical’s hit scene on exterior balcony — as paying followers inner look on livestream,” reads a Fresh York Post headline.

June 21, 2025: Tabloids can’t discover ample of the balcony scene. Two of us faint whereas waiting to look her allege “Argentina” exterior the London Palladium, per The Solar. The Fresh York Post writes, “A whole lot of theater followers ‘discover unwell’ waiting in heat to look Rachel Zegler rupture ‘Evita’ balcony scene amid backlash.”

June 23, 2025: Zegler lastly responds to Snow White controversy for the major time, in ID. “My fucking psychiatrist has seen me by map of all of it,” she says, adding that she tried to endure in thoughts that “‘what you’re going by map of isn’t normal.’” She says she doesn’t are looking out for to be idea just a few victim. “I discover a victim state of thoughts is a different, and I don’t resolve it,” she says. “I additionally don’t resolve nastiness in the face of it. I don’t resolve negativity in the face of it. I resolve positivity and gentle and happiness. And I assemble have faith now and then, happiness is in actuality a different, and each day I discover up and I discover I’m very lucky to stay the existence I stay.”

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