Actress Rachel Zegler says that her race is a consistent issue when being cast for major movie roles.
Whether it was Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” or Disney’s “Snow White,” Zegler says she’s received criticism for not being enough of either ethnicity of the roles she has played.
‘When you’re two things, you’re simultaneously nothing.’
While many would argue that Zegler’s constant criticisms of the traditional “Snow White” story — like calling Prince Charming a “stalker” — were the main drivers of the movie’s failure, Zegler says it is her refusal to “assimilate” that causes viewers discomfort.
Skin deep
In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she implied that she was told she was not white enough for “Snow White” and not Puerto Rican enough to play Maria in “West Side Story.”
“I was told I wasn’t enough of one thing for ‘West Side Story’ and too much of another for ‘Snow White,'” she said.
Zegler called it a “confusing time” in her early twenties, despite being only 25 years old now, and played to her Colombian background; she was born in New Jersey, with Colombian and Polish parents.
“I grew up proud of being Colombian — eating the food, wearing the dresses, drinking the coffee, doing all the things that were so intrinsic to who I was as a kid and who I am as an adult,” Zegler said.
However, the actress then claimed that being biracial is actually what gets her overlooked.
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Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
Comfort zone
“I do think there’s an argument to be made that, in the public eye at least, when you’re two things, you’re simultaneously nothing,” she added. “But I refuse to assimilate for anybody else’s comfort.”
While Zegler seemingly takes issue when it comes to audiences or studios noticing her ethnicity, she has certainly focused on her Colombian background a lot as a cause for celebration.
She told People in 2021 that she grew up in a “very Colombian American household” and loved being “surrounded by the biggest amount of Latinos I’ve ever been surrounded by” while filming “West Side Story.”
At the same time, she claimed that studio executives “kept calling to ask if I was legit,” in reference to being Colombian.
It was strange to have “a bunch of white executives have you prove your identity to them,” she told the L.A. Times in 2025.
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Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios
Race rhapsody
In 2023, she joined forces with fellow Disney princess Halle Bailey to once again bask in the joy of being around certain races. She called it “beautiful” when Bailey remarked on working with an “all-black” cast, before calling her role as “Snow White” a “huge moment” for those who share her ethnicity.
Despite her recent interviewer purposely trying to pull her into a political debate, Zegler was described as not being willing to discuss politics but still acknowledged, according to the writer, that what’s happening in the United States is “very difficult to witness in real time.”
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