A Disney Insider Blames the Utter Catastrophe of 'Snow White' on its Star's 'Narcissism'

Fraser Gray. Shutterstock Images.

After a couple of years and maybe a dozen blogs, I really thought I'd retired from posting about the Disney remake of Snow White with this:

But …

It was inevitable. When the biggest media conglomerate in the world, and one of the most recognizable brands ever, sets fire to a pile of money in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the story isn't going to just end in a few days. Especially when it's been a slow motion trainwreck everyone saw coming. There is going to be fallout. Recriminations. Blame will be laid. Fingers will be pointed. Backs will be stabbed. 

And that is precisely what's happening at Disney. And will probably continue to. Since it's only gotten worse for the Mouse as the week has gone on:

I assume that's correct. According to AI, the official lowest IMDb score ever was for some German film with the English title of Daniel the Wizard, which was a 1.2/10. And Kirk Cameron made a Christmas move that was at 1.3/10, but wasn't widely distributed. So among major releases of American films, Snow White's current 1.6 holds the record. Meaning a beloved, timeless, classic fairy tale about a princess defeating an evil queen and finding true love has less than half the rating of a sequel about an insane doctor who sews people's mouths to other people's buttholes:

Advertisement

This is the kind of failure that will be taught in film schools for generations to come. Assuming the movie industry survives, that is. 

And so, predictably, the Shootout in the Lifeboat has begun. And the first shot fired was by the son of one of the film's executive producers. And his target was Rachel Zegler:

Source - A Snow White producer's son reprimanded the movie's leading star, Rachel Zegler, in a now-deleted Instagram comment.

Jonah Platt is the son of Marc Platt—a Tony and Emmy award-winning filmmaker …

The 38-year-old took to Instagram to hit back at a comment about his father following Variety's report alleging that Marc Platt flew to New York to speak with Zegler over her politics.

In August 2024, the actress—who plays Snow White in the 2025 remake—drew controversy for weighing in on the Israel-Gaza war. At the time, she thanked her fans on X when Snow White's trailer hit 120 million views in 24 hours. In the same thread, the 23-year-old added: "and always remember, free palestine."

Zegler was also criticized by conservatives after posting a slew of messages on Instagram attacking President Donald Trump following his victory in the 2024 election. Zegler said: "May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace" and added that there was a "deep, deep sickness" in the United States. "f* Donald Trump," she concluded her note.

"Your dad flew to NYC to reprimand a young actress?" the commenter wrote on one of Jonah Platt's Instagram posts. "Any words on this? Cuz that's creepy as h* and uncalled for. People have the right to free speech, no? Shame on your father."

"You really want to do this?" Jonah Platt asked. "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. This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film's box office."

He continued: "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."

Platt's shots at Zegler are drawing some re-direct fire online. Which is natural since 38-year-old actors with highly successful movie executives for fathers aren't exactly the most sympathetic figures in society. I mean, no one in Hollywood is organizing a "Save the Nepo Babies" charity fun run. So I get it. By weighing in, even to defend his father from someone trying to literally shame him, Platt made himself into a big, slow-moving target.

But no one seems to be arguing his point. Go all ad hominem if you want, but the man isn't wrong. Sure, he shouldn't be trying to pin all the blame for Snow White's failure on Zegler's inability to keep her thoughts to herself. There's plenty of blame to go around. Not the least of which should be directed at the producers who greenlit and oversaw this abomination no one wanted in the first place. Including Marc Platt.

Still, Platt the Elder was simply doing his job when he flew across the country to tell the titular star of his film to zip it. Yes, we all have a 1st Amendment right to Free Speech. And the people who pay you millions to put on a fairy tale princess dress have the right to tell you to knock it off if you're exercising yours in a way that hurts their investment. That's life in the big city. Zegler should've been grateful all Marc Platt did was ask her to lay off the politics. There's no protection in the Bill of Rights against getting shitcanned when you alienate half your potential audience.

Of course, there are exceptions. They're commonly referred to as Movie Stars. The bankable kind. If Tom Cruise or Samuel L. Jackson (who has the highest grossing filmography in Hollywood history) wants to say something controversial, they can get away with it. In the way a superstar athlete can mouth off about his contract or whatever, because they back it up on the field/court/ice. How much of a pain you can be to your employer is in direct proportion to how much you produce. Rachel Zegler doesn't put asses in the seats to have the right to Free Anything. This movie proved that:

Advertisement

It IS "called adult responsibility and accountability." To the people paying the bills, as well as all the lighting people, camera operators, truck drivers, caterers and so on. The ones who are going to have a harder time of it on the next project after Disney is done taking such a financial bath on this one. Like I said the last time I posted about this dreary, tedious mess, maybe this will make them quit just microwaving the leftover of their old IP for "modern audiences" and just get back to making good moves again. I won't be holding my breath though.