Rachel Zegler Is Not the Only Politically Outspoken Actor with a Box-Office Flop

We’re probably hitting this topic a little hard, but it’s a sweet spot for this site, where politics and entertainment converge. In a period of American history where far too many people with large platforms are keeping their heads down for the sake of commerce, it’s meaningful when someone rises above that to speak truth to power—in this case, Disney, which would rather stick its head in the sand than support an embattled star for committing the sin of speaking out against fascism and human suffering.

That’s Rachel Zegler, the star of Snow White, who is being scapegoated for its poor box office performance. We wrote yesterday that Marc Platt, a Disney producer, was tasked with handling Zegler during promotion for Snow White—it was his job to put product over politics.

Yesterday, Marc Platt’s son, Jonah, got pulled into the fray after an Instagram commenter called his father “creepy as hell” for his efforts to handle Zegler. Jonah Platt weighed in. From this perspective, it did not go well for him.

“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.”

“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.”

Again, Zegler did not promote her brand, align herself with an abuser, or exhibit diva-like behavior. Rachel Zegler didn’t do anything that Mark Ruffalo — another Disney star — doesn’t do every day on social media. No one attacks him, or Robert De Niro, or even Florence Pugh, who, by the way, is also promoting a Disney film and also recently weighed in politically against this administration. Are their desires “immature,” too? No one blamed Mark Ruffalo for the Mickey 17 box office disappointment, or Robert De Niro for the spectacular failure of Alto Knights.

No one is riding Mark Ruffalo’s, Florence Pugh’s, or Robert De Niro’s asses. Or Jack Quaid, who starred in Novocaine last week and Companion earlier this year and spoke out against his own father’s politics! Not even Gal Gadot — who actually turned in an abysmal performance (regardless of her politics) — is getting heat. You know what all their movies have in common? They’re not that great (well, we’ll reserve judgment on Thunderbolts until its release, although her film We Live In Time underperformed last year). And yet, only Rachel Zegler gets personally blamed for the performance of a less-than-mediocre film. I wonder why that is?