Gal Gadot finally breaks silence on woke Snow White as she claims she was pressured over Israel

Gal Gadot blamed anti-Israel sentiment for the catastrophic box office failure of the new live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White.

The movie was dogged by controversies, many of them involving the leading lady Rachel Zegler, who came under fire for polarizing public statements including ‘free Palestine‘ and her disparagement of the original cartoon she was remaking.

Zegler’s casting itself was a hot button issue, as she did not physically fit the original Grimm’s fairy tale description of her character as having ‘skin as white as snow.’

The seven dwarfs also became a source of debate – seven little people were initially cast, but then after an outburst from Peter Dinklage they were replaced with actors of varying physical descriptions ‘to avoid reinforcing stereotypes,’ leading to another round of backlash that prompted Disney to go back to seven dwarfs but in CGI.

However Gadot – an Israeli who served in the IDF in accordance with the draft and has been an unyielding advocate of her country – evidently feels that her movie flopped because of increased opposition to Israel.

‘I was sure this movie was going to be a huge hit. And then…it happened,’ said Gadot, 40, referring to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks that triggered Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, in an Israeli interview that has gone viral.

Gal Gadot blamed anti-Israel sentiment for the box office failure of the new politically correct live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White; pictured at this year’s Oscars 

‘And you know, this happens a lot in various industries, including Hollywood. There’s pressure on celebrities to speak against Israel,’ she alleged.

Speaking to an audience of people in Israel, she said that ‘I can always explain and try to give context about what’s happening here, and I always do that. But in the end, people make their own decisions. And I was disappointed the movie was so affected and it didn’t succeed at the box office. But that’s how it goes.’

After giving the rest of her answer in her native Hebrew, the Wonder Woman star switched to English and concluded: ‘You win some, you lose some.’ 

Earlier in the same interview, Gadot had insisted she ‘really enjoyed filming this movie,’ to which an audience member slyly interjected: ‘Especially when it wasn’t with Rachel Zegler.’

Rumors flew last year that Gadot and Zegler had carried on a feud over their divergent positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But when her co-star was brought up during her new interview, Gadot said: ‘I even enjoyed working with Rachel Zegler. I laughed, talked and had fun.’

As the interview circulated online, Gadot posted a statement to her Insta Stories clarifying the line of thinking behind her remarks.

‘I was honored to join an extraordinary interview with inspiring interviewers, whose questions go straight to the heart,’ she wrote.

‘Sometimes we respond to questions from an emotional place. When the film came out, I felt that those who are against Israel criticized me in a very personal, almost visceral way. They saw me first and foremost as an Israeli, not as an actress. That’s the perspective I spoke from when I answered the question,’ Gadot added.

‘Of course, the film didn’t fail solely because of external pressures. There are many factors that determine why a film succeeds or fails, and success is never guaranteed.’

In the run-up to the movie’s release, Gadot was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, while the controversies surrounding the project largely involved Zegler.

Jonah Platt, a son of the movie’s producer Marc Platt, even publicly slammed Zegler for her comments and revealed his father flew cross-country to ‘reprimand’ her for ‘dragging her personal politics’ into the film’s promotional tour.

The movie was dogged by controversies, many of them involving the leading lady Rachel Zegler , who came under fire for polarizing public statements 

When the movie bowed this March, it bombed so disastrously at the box office that by the end of its theatrical run Forbes predicted it would lose ‘more’ than $115 million 

In the months prior to the film’s release, Zegler faced online blowback for a string of splashy political remarks such as a ‘free Palestine’ tweet and a wish – expressed after last year’s American elections – that Trump voters ‘never know peace.’

When Snow White bowed this March, it flopped so disastrously that by the end of its theatrical run Forbes predicted it would lose ‘more’ than $115 million.

A large segment of social media placed the blame squarely on Zegler – a coda to years of gathering online outrage against her and the film.

Her initial casting in 2021 was a lightning rod of contention, as Zegler herself did not have the ‘skin as white as snow’ that the brothers Grimm had described.

The following year at an official Disney fan event, Zegler alienated fans of the original 1937 animated classic by offering a scathing appraisal of its plot. 

‘There’s a big focus on her love story with a guy who literally stalks her. Weird! Weird,’ she sneered of the old movie. ‘So we didn’t do that this time.’

Another controversy took off in 2022 when Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage – who himself has dwarfism – denounced the Snow White remake for having a ‘f***ing backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together.’

Almost immediately thereafter, the little people who had previously been cast for the movie were jettisoned from the project, with Disney declaring that it hoped ‘to avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film.’ 

The seven dwarfs were also a source of a back-and-forth debate that culminated in the characters being rendered in CGI rather than played by actual little people 

Rumors circulated last year that Gadot and Zegler had carried on a simmering feud over their divergent opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 

Other actors with dwarfism then fiercely criticized Dinklage to the Daily Mail, arguing that he had reduced the number of jobs for actors with their condition.

‘It makes me so sick to my stomach to think that there are seven roles for dwarfs that can’t get normal acting roles, or very few and far between roles, and now they are gone because of this guy,’ said one of them, Dylan Posti. ‘Peter Dinklage is the biggest dwarf actor probably of all time but it doesn’t make him king dwarf.’

An on-set photo surfaced showing that the ‘seven dwarfs’ had been replaced by a racially diverse set of ‘magical creatures’ of varying heights and appearances.

The photo was deluged with such a tsunami of online mockery that Disney initially denied it was genuine before finally confessing it was.

In October 2023, with the movie wreathed in a cloud of derision, Disney delayed Snow White’s release for a year in order to perform a major revamp.

When her co-star was brought up during her new interview, Gadot said: ‘I even enjoyed working with Rachel Zegler,’ adding: ‘I laughed, talked and had fun’

The film ultimately emerged with the seven dwarfs restored, but now rendered in CGI instead of being played in live-action by actual little people. 

Weeks before the movie came out, Gadot and Zegler appeared onstage together at the Oscars to present best visual effects, and social media users began feverishly analyzing their body language to try to detect hints of animosity.

Gadot then found herself denying claims that she had refused to present the best documentary Oscar to the pro-Palestine film No Other Land.

Directed by four activists – two Israeli and two Palestinian – the documentary is vociferously critical of Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Gadot’s representatives told the Daily Mail that she was never scheduled to present best documentary in the first place and was always slated to appear onstage with Zegler to give out the award for best visual effects.

About two weeks later, Snow White came out in theaters and was savaged by the critics to the tune of a 38% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences snubbed the film and left it to its fate as a punchline.