Rachel Zegler is just 24 years old, but she’s already been in the center of enough Hollywood controversies to last a lifetime. The young actress has never had a major project pass without some sort of scandal dominating the narrative. From her career beginnings alongside Ansel Elgort in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, through her recent starring role in Jamie Lloyd’s Evita, Zegler’s public narrative has been defined not by her (immense) talent but by various tangential squabbles. She’s been forced to answer for male co-stars who have sexually harassed women and denied vaccines, anti-diversity conservative hate campaigns, and even the creative decisions of her latest West End musical, Evita. But how much has she herself contributed to the narrative? Below, a full timeline of Zegler’s career and the controversies following her from the start.
January 14, 2019: Rachel Zegler, still a high-schooler, is cast in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake, alongside Ansel Elgort as her lover, Tony; Ariana DeBose as her sister-in-law and best friend, Anita; Mike Faist as Tony’s friend Riff; and David Alvarez as her brother, Bernardo, per Deadline. She is 17 and wins the role out of 30,000 applicants. “I am so thrilled to be playing the iconic role of Maria alongside this amazing cast,” Zegler says in her first-ever public statement. “West Side Story was the first musical I encountered with a Latina lead character. As a Colombian American, I am humbled by the opportunity to play a role that means so much to the Hispanic community.”
October 4, 2019: Fans accuse Zegler of home-wrecking her co-star Ansel Elgort’s then-relationship after filming wraps. “There really aren’t enough words to describe the pride I have in Ansel’s growth and beauty and literal magic he possesses on screen and off,” Zegler tweets. “Falling in love with him was easy. Happy wrap mi amor; catch ya on a fire escape sometime soon.” However, she then deletes the tweet, per E! Online, because fans accuse her of inserting herself into Elgort’s relationship with his high-school sweetheart, Violetta Komyshan. Zegler responds to the allegations in an Instagram Story. “The fact that i have to say something is absolutely absurd. but the DMs and the name-calling and throwing around the word homewrecker over me expressing genuine love i have for my coworker is heartbreaking and i don’t want any part of it,” she says. “So peace for now, i guess. be nice.” She adds that “The internet has made me upset so goodbye for a bit be nice to each other.” It is her first time responding to a controversy.
June 19, 2020: Zegler’s co-star Elgort is accused of sexual assault of a minor on (then) Twitter. Other women quickly follow, including one woman who claims that Elgort sent her dick pics when she was in eighth grade. In a since-deleted statement on his Instagram, Elgort says that “As I look back at my attitude, I am disgusted and deeply ashamed of the way I acted,” but maintains that “I have never and would never assault anyone.” He is still in the film.
June 22, 2021: Before West Side Story even opens in theaters, Zegler is cast in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remake, per Deadline. She shares a video on Twitter of her “meeting” Snow White, captioned “homegirl we have LOTS to catch up on.” Nearly immediately, she begins trending on Twitter, with Disney fans complaining that a Latina was cast in a role with “snow white” skin. “Yes, I am Snow White. No, I am not bleaching my skin for the role,” Zegler tweets, then deletes, per BuzzFeed.
December 10, 2021: West Side Story premieres in theaters. The film gets positive reviews, with the New York Times saying Zegler “sings some of the most challenging numbers with full-throated authority.” The film is subsequently catapulted into the Oscars race, with Zegler doing press throughout the campaign.
January 26, 2022: In the midst of their campaign, Zegler is asked about Elgort’s allegations. “We made a movie two and a half years ago, and a lot has gone on in the world since then,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. “A lot has changed very publicly, and privately as well. There’s been a lot of awakening. You just hope that the people involved are okay, that they are asked in a respectful manner and that they are given the opportunity to answer for themselves.”
March 19, 2022: West Side Story may be nominated for Best Picture, but Zegler isn’t invited to the Oscars. While shooting Snow White in London, Zegler reveals her lack of an invitation by replying to a comment on her own Instagram post. “i will root for west side story from my couch and be proud of the work we so tirelessly did 3 years go,” she writes in a since-deleted comment, per BuzzFeed. “i hope some last minute miracle occurs and i can celebrate our film in person but hey, that’s how it goes sometimes, i guess. thanks for all the shock and outrage — i’m disappointed, too. but that’s okay. so proud of 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 about the rare time that Latine people have a movie nominated for an OSCAR you invite the lead. Latine people are 18.5% of this country. ENOUGH!” Zegler responds to the firestorm on Twitter. “my goodness, folks!!” she writes. “appreciate all the support, i really really do. we live in such unprecedented times, and a lot of work behind the scenes goes into making movie magic happen. that goes for film productions (like the one I am so lucky to be currently shooting in london) and awards shows alike. let’s all just respect the process and i’ll get off my phone.”
March 21, 2022: Zegler scores an invite anyway! After making her invite-less status public on Instagram, Zegler gets asked to present at the Oscars, per The Hollywood Reporter. She ultimately does present on March 27 at the awards show.
April 19, 2022: Zegler responds to being asked about Elgort’s allegations for the first time in an interview with Elle. “It was a real gut punch, honestly,” Zegler says. “I reverted back to this brain space I was in [back in] June of 2020, when the accusation surfaced. We were in the middle of the first wave of lockdown, and there was nothing to do but doomscroll. Those days were some of the worst mental-health days I’ve ever had. I was sitting there having just turned 19, on the precipice of what was promised to be the biggest moment in my life, and was being held accountable [by the public] for accusations that not only had nothing to do with me but were made about a situation that was said to have occurred [five] years prior to when I had met and worked with this person. With no thought to the fact that I was also 17 when I met this person, 17 when I worked with them, 17 and 18 when I had to do love scenes.”
September 11, 2022: Zegler says the words that will come back to haunt her over and over again during the Snow White press tour. “The original cartoon came out in 1937 and very evidently so,” she tells Extra during the D23 Expo 2022. “There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird. So we didn’t do that this time.” She promises that “we have a different approach to what I’m sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnap, great dude … But it’s really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful … All of Andrew’s scenes could get cut, who knows? It’s Hollywood, baby! It’s an inner journey that she goes on to find her true self and she meets a lot of people along the way that makes the journey really incredible.” Immediately, far-right pundits respond, and the quote is used as ammo against her moving forward. “Disney is trying a really interesting marketing strategy where the star of the new Snow White spends a year before the movie’s release publicly talking about how much she despises Snow White,” conservative blogger Matt Walsh immediately tweets in response, setting the tone for the rest of the Snow White press tour.
March 15, 2023: While attending the premiere of her superhero movie, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Zegler gets asked why she chose to do the movie. “The reality was we were in the middle of a pandemic and I was not working and I couldn’t get a job for the life of me because West Side Story hadn’t come out yet, and it was really hard to book work for me,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet. “So I was really excited when this came into my inbox.” Can’t blame the girl for lack of honesty.
July 15, 2023: The discourse about Snow White soldiers on, but Zegler attempts to tap out. “extremely appreciative of the love i feel from those defending me online, but please don’t tag me in the nonsensical discourse about my casting,” Zegler requests on X. “i really, truly do not want to see it.”
August 12, 2024: The trailer for Snow White comes out. Zegler tweets her thanks “for the love and for 120m views on our trailer in just 24 hours! what a whirlwind.” Then, she replies to herself, saying “and always remember, free palestine.” That comment is picked apart by Israeli and conservative outlets, including the Jerusalem Post and Fox News. She is specifically contrasted to her Israeli co-star Gal Gadot, who served in the IDF. “Rachel Zegler is trolling her much more famous and beautiful Snow White co-star Gal Gadot,” Newsweek contributor Joel M. Petlin says in her replies, garnering over 8,000 likes. “Disney continues to hire the wrong actors to represent their brand. Rather than promoting a film, they choose to embarrass themselves and the studio.”
September 30, 2024: Zegler’s Shazam! co-star Zachary Levi endorses Donald Trump for president after his chosen candidate, RFK Jr., drops out of the race, 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 lengthy response on Instagram Stories, saying that there is a “deep, deep sickness” in the U.S., per The Guardian. She wishes “May Trump supporters and Trump voters and Trump himself never know peace” and ends her statement, saying, “Fuck Donald Trump.” Conservatives again go after her, with Megyn Kelly calling Zegler a “pig.”
November 15, 2024: Zegler apologizes for her anti-Trump comments. “Hi everyone, I would like to sincerely apologize for the election post I shared on my Instagram last week. I let my emotions get the best of me,” Zegler writes, per Variety. “Hatred and anger have caused us to move further and further away from peace and understanding, and I am sorry I contributed to the negative discourse.”
March 15, 2025: The Snow White premiere does not include any outside press, and it is speculated that Disney chose not to allow journalists to avoid Zegler or Gadot being asked about Israel and Palestine. The film is universally panned by reviewers, but Zegler’s performance is consistently brought up as the film’s creative high point. “Despite being set up as a fall gal by the studio,” Vulture critic Alison Willmore notes in her review, “[Zegler] gives excellent princess face while communing with CGI animals and belting out the chorus of the remake’s newly added ‘I Wish’ song.”
March 25, 2025: After Snow White bombs in the box office, Zegler receives the lion’s share of the blame in a controversial report by Variety’s Tatiana Siegel. The report reveals that, after Zegler initially tweeted about Palestine in 2024, producer Marc Platt flew to see her and tried to convince her to take down the post. “She didn’t understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal, for anyone,” an insider tells Siegel, though Zegler’s direct connection to the film’s box-office woes is not directly established.
March 27, 2025: Platt’s son Jonah Platt (notably not his more famous son Ben Platt) goes after Zegler on social media. “My dad, the producer of [an] 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,” Platt writes in a since-deleted comment, per People. “This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office.”
June 18, 2025: Zegler begins performances as Eva Perón in director Jamie Lloyd’s Evita on London’s West End. During the climactic song, “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina,” Zegler as Perón sings from the theater’s balcony to a street of people while a camera projects her performance live into the theater. Somehow, this is turned into a controversy directed at Zegler, who did not direct the show. “Rachel Zegler faces backlash for performing musical’s hit scene on outside balcony — as paying fans inside watch on livestream,” reads a New York Post headline.
June 21, 2025: Tabloids can’t get enough of the balcony scene. Two people faint while waiting to watch her sing “Argentina” outside the London Palladium, per The Sun. The New York Post writes, “Multiple theater fans ‘fall ill’ waiting in heat to watch Rachel Zegler perform ‘Evita’ balcony scene amid backlash.”
June 23, 2025: Zegler finally responds to Snow White controversy for the first time, in ID. “My fucking psychiatrist has seen me through all of it,” she says, adding that she tried to remember that “‘what you’re going through isn’t normal.’” She says she doesn’t want to be considered a victim. “I think a victim mind-set is a choice, and I don’t choose it,” she says. “I also don’t choose nastiness in the face of it. I don’t choose negativity in the face of it. I choose positivity and light and happiness. And I do believe at times, happiness is absolutely a choice, and every day I wake up and I think I’m very lucky to live the life I live.”
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The young actress’s press-loved scandals keep on compounding — but what has she actually said about it?
