Over the past years, Disney has released many successful live-action movies of its animated classics. The live-action movies include the remake of “Cinderella” (2015), “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), “Aladdin” (2019), “The Lion King” (2019) and many others including 2021’s “Cruella” that had gained worldwide recognition upon its release.
The next titular character who will be making its live-action debut is none other than Snow White of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, Walt Disney Animation Studio’s first animated film. Walt Disney had announced earlier this week that rising Hollywood star Rachel Zegler has been cast as the OG Disney princess.
Here are some interesting facts to know about the young star, Rachel Zegler.
1. She is a YouTuber-turned-actor and self-professed theatre kid from New Jersey.
2. Her YouTube channel, that was created in 2011, has reached over 200k subscribers and it consists of videos of her experience in theatrical production and songs that she has covered.
3. Snow White is not Zegler’s first role as a Disney Princess. She once starred as Ariel of “The Little Mermaid” during her high school days. A photo of her playing Ariel resurfaced as the actress retweeted her 2017 tweet that was captioned “I wanna be a real Disney princess”.
hahahahhahahahaha https://t.co/mJOOsp2SAB
— rachel zegler (she/her/hers) (@rachelzegler) June 22, 2021
4. She received Award nominations for her high school theatrical performances. As the star of her high school theatre program in New Jersey, she had multiple starring roles in the productions of “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Little Mermaid”, “42nd Street” and “Shrek the Musical”. Each role that she received earned her nominations for the Metropolitan High School Theatre Awards or the Metros.
5. Director Mark Webb on why the 20-year-old is the perfect choice: “Rachel’s extraordinary vocal abilities are just the beginning of her gifts. Her strength, intelligence and optimism will become an integral part of rediscovering the joy in this classic Disney fairy tale”.
6. According to Deadline, Disney conducted an extensive search for their lead cast, which eventually landed on Zegler’s footage from her past musical with Steven Spielberg that convinced the production that she was the right choice for the role.
Prior to her iconic Disney princess remake, the actress will star and debut in the much-anticipated Steven Spielberg remake of “West-Side Story” as Maria. She is also set to take a role in the upcoming sequel of DC’s 2019 blockbuster “Shazam”, “Shazam: Fury Of The Gods” alongside Zachary Levi as the titular superhero.
The production of the Disney classic live-action remake is scheduled to begin in 2022.
Sources: The Star, US Magazine, CNN Entertainment, Deadline, Buzzfeed, Empire.
