By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-30 23:56:08 | Updated at 2025-04-01 18:30:40
1 day ago
The son of Beatles icon John Lennon and artist Yoko Ono has delivered a scathing rebuke of the star of the new live action Snow White movie, Rachel Zegler.
Sean Ono Lennon waded into the heated discussion with a post on X, hitting out at Zegler's controversial conduct amid filming and the release of the Disney flick.
While acknowledging that the backlash may have gone 'too far,' Lennon didn't mince words when it came to his personal view of the 23-year-old actress, labeling her behavior as that of 'a spoiled ungrateful and disconnected brat.'
Once poised to be Disney's crown jewel in its live-action remake arsenal, Snow White now appears to be the studio's most fraught endeavor to date.
The film pulled in a disappointing $43 million on opening weekend - nearly half of its projected $85 million target.
A musician and producer, Sean, 48, generally maintains a quiet presence online but he felt urged to speak out on this occasion.
'I agree the vilification went too far,' he said on X. 'But she also acts like a spoiled ungrateful and disconnected brat. So it's no surprise.'
The backlash to Zegler's behavior, he implied, wasn't merely reactionary but earned.
Sean Ono Lennon, son of Beatles icon John Lennon and artist Yoko Ono has delivered a scathing rebuke of the star of the new live action Snow White movie, Rachel Zegler
Posting on X, Lennon waded directly into the heated discussion surrounding Zegler's controversial casting and conduct
The film pulled in a disappointing $43 million on opening weekend - nearly half of its projected $85 million target
Reddit threads, Disney forums, and entertainment newsfeeds have since been ablaze with scathing commentary, with one user encapsulating the sentiment: 'A perfect storm of bad ideas gets exactly what it deserves.'
The perfect storm appears to have begun in 2021 with Zegler's casting.
While Disney heralded the choice of a Colombian-Polish American actress to play the titular heroine of a German fairy tale as progressive, others declared it to be another instance of Hollywood's 'woke' agenda.
The backlash intensified when Zegler, in a since-deleted tweet, wrote: 'yes i am snow white no i am not bleaching my skin for the role.'
Zegler didn't merely star in the film but also criticized its 1937 animated predecessor, dismissing its themes of true love and Prince Charming as 'weird' and outdated.
'She's not going to be saved by the prince, and she's not going to be dreaming about true love,' Zegler declared in an interview.
She described Charming as 'literally a stalker' and tweeted days after the movie's official trailer was released in August 2024.
The film's marketing was abruptly subdued and there were no red carpet interviews at its Hollywood premiere, limited press invitations at its European debut in a remote Segovia castle, with Zegler and co-star Gal Gadot notably absent from press junkets.
Zegler's stance is only part of a wider crisis for Snow White.
Co-stars Zegler and Gadot have reportedly not got on as a result of their differing political views
The CGI dwarves (pictured here in a still from the film) have also served to complicate matters
Rachel Zegler sent Disney executives into a panic when she tweeted 'free Palestine' a day after the first trailer for Snow White was released
Gal Gadot has expressed support for Israel for years - and stepped up her vocal activism following the October 7 attacks (pictured: a post she made a day after the attacks)
The film's title conspicuously drops any reference to the Seven Dwarfs and for good reason.
Disney promised a 'different approach' and in the final film, the dwarfs are reimagined as CGI-created magical gnomes and not portrayed by actors with dwarfism.
Complicating matters further, Zegler has been outspoken in her political activism, signing off social media posts with 'Free Palestine,' while Gadot is an avowed supporter of Israel.
Snow White reportedly cost over $200 million to produce, according to Forbes.
'They have no-one to blame but themselves for this mess,' one Redditor wrote.
