Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver defend Rachel Zegler in ‘Snow White’, saying Jonah Platt can “go fuck himself”

Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver have defended Rachel Zegler for her leading role in Snow White, criticising Jonah Platt for blaming the actor for the film’s poor performance.

The two spoke about the latest Disney live-action remake in a new episode of the Miss Me? podcast, and explored how the leading actor has been getting a huge negative response – in part due to voicing her support for Palestine.

The film has had a disastrous opening in cinemas, making just $42.2million in the US, well below expectations considering the film’s estimated $240–270million budget. It would also achieve one of the lowest scores ever on IMDb (Internet Movie Database), currently sitting at 1.6 out of 10 from user-submitted ratings.

As well as some criticising Zegler for her political views, some backlash has come due to her being a Latina actor cast in the role, which in past iterations has been a character described as having “skin as white as snow”.

Among the critics was Jonah Platt, the son of the film’s producer Marc Platt, who hit out act the actor as being “narcissistic” and “dragging her personal politics in the middle of promoting a movie — for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for”. He also defended the backlash against her as “adult responsibility and accountability.”

Speaking about the comments on the podcast, Oliver gave an overview of the situation and discussed Platt’s remarks. “Interesting, he assumes her political beliefs have no place anywhere and that she is narcissistic to even have them. [But] If you go on his page, he is very political, pro-Israel, and his political beliefs are all over the output he puts in the world. So it’s a very confusing situation and incredible that they’ve put the blame on this 20-year-old girl.”

Allen continued, highlighting how it is somewhat hypocritical for fans of Disney to criticise Zegler for sharing her political outlook as “in terms of Disney films, it’s always quite central to anyone’s character that they stand up for what they believe in.”

“Isn’t it that the protagonist usually has some sort of struggle where they have to stand up in adversity? So [Platt] can go fuck himself basically,” she added. She then shared how the concept of the female character “saving themselves” in the plots has been around for years in Disney films, meaning that claims that it is ‘woke’ for Snow White to have that have no basis.

Oliver added that the CGI used to make the Seven Dwarfs in the film was “really bad” and that the poor response to the live-action remake may be because “It might just be a bit shit, and not Rachel Zegler’s fault.”

Among those defending the Golden Globe winner following the backlash to Snow White is Pedro Pascal, who posted a message of support on Instagram and called her an “icon”.

Criticism came from Sean Lennon – the son of Yoko Ono and late Beatles icon John Lennon –  who recently took to X/Twitter to say he “agree[d] the vilification” of Zegler had gone “too far” but claimed that the actor behaved like “a spoiled, ungrateful and disconnected brat”.

Lennon would later delete the post, and post follow-up updates saying that he “regrets using harsh language” and thinks that Zegler is a “talented” actor. 

In 2023, Zegler responded to the backlash around the film, describing it as “nonsensical discourse”. “I hope every child knows they can be a princess no matter what”, she posted at the time. It has also been reported that Disney hired a “social media guru” to vet her posts during the movie’s press tour.

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