Jonah Platt, the son of Snow White producer Marc Platt, has strongly criticised the film's star, Rachel Zegler, claiming that her social media activity is negatively impacting the film. The criticism from Jonah Platt surfaced on Instagram in response to a Variety report detailing an incident in August. According to the report, Marc Platt, apparently following Disney's request, visited New York City to ask Zegler to delete a "free Palestine" remark she had posted on X while thanking Disney admirers for their support of the trailer for Snow White.
The online exchange began when a netizen, who described Platt's father as "creepy as hell," regarded the latter's attempts to control the Snow White star's social media activity as "uncalled for."
In a now-deleted reply, Platt, who is also the host of the podcast Being Jewish, responded sharply, writing: "You really want to do this? Yeah, my dad, the producer of 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 continued his defense of his father's actions, stating: "This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office. Free speech does not mean you’re allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions. Tens of thousands of people worked on that film and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.”
Neither Disney nor Platts' representatives have offered any immediate comment on the situation. Jonah Platt, who has been vocal against antisemitism, notably criticised Kanye West after the musician decorated his buildings with swastikas.
Earlier, Marc Platt discussed the issue of actors giving political remarks on Jonah's podcast. When asked about how he addresses situations such as Wicked stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo's pro-Palestine comments, Platt said: "No decent human being wants any suffering in humanity from decent people. What happens in instances is individuals ascribe their names to something, where they are not being completely informed, and the messaging to them is, ‘There is suffering here. We have to speak out for suffering.’ The message doesn’t include, ‘There is also suffering over here.’ Or, ‘There is suffering that was prompted, or instigated, by an act of terror, or an act of evil.’ Or, ‘There is a terrorist group in place that wishes for the annihilation of a whole group of people.’ That gets left out of the conversation. So my way of dealing with it is — when the moment is right — to have that conversation, where it can be heard and not in the midst of anger. And I feel good about those conversations that I’ve been having."
Despite the controversy surrounding her social media activity, Rachel Zegler's Snow White performance has been widely appreciated, even by those who disliked the film as a whole. Leading up to its release, Zegler actively participated in promotional efforts for the film.