'It’s no longer 1937.' The latest victim of Hollywood's Annoying Woman Syndrome.

Disney adults, run for cover! Rachel Zegler is coming after your 80-year-old childhood memories. 

The West Side Story actor is starring in Disney's live-action remake of the 1937 cartoon Snow White, which is slated for a March 2024 release. But she's suddenly found herself in the ire of a social media controversy over comments she made last year.

Snippets of an interview with Variety – from 11 months ago no less – have randomly gone viral. While the interview was wide-ranging, and also featured Gal Gadot, the 'controversial' comment came when Zegler was asked about her hopes for updating Snow White for the modern age.

“I just mean that it’s no longer 1937,” Zegler replied. 

“She’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love; she’s going to be dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be and that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave and true.”

Watch the interview for yourself here. Post continues after video.

In another interview with Entertainment Weekly (again, from many months ago!), Zegler said that Prince Charming in the original tale was "a guy who literally stalks” the movie's princess. She referred to the dynamic between Snow White and the Prince as “weird” and joked that he “could get cut" from the live-action movie. 

She continued, "We have a different approach to what I'm sure a lot of people will assume is a love story just because we cast a guy in the movie," she said. "It's really not about the love story at all, which is really, really wonderful."

Some of the actor's spicier statements have been popping up all over TikTok in the last two weeks, with one TikToker referring to Zegler's comments as 'pseudo feminism', a video which has amassed one million likes. 

She wrote in the video's caption, "Some women want a career and not marriage. Some women want a marriage or family and not a job. Some women want BOTH."  

As the backlash grew, the actor tweeted a statement addressing some of her critics.

i hope the world becomes kinder

— rachel zegler (she/her/hers) (@rachelzegler) August 11, 2023

The response is heavy-handed given just how inherently sexist the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs film was. 

Let's backtrack for a minute: Snow White tells the Brothers Grimm tale of the Evil Queen who banishes her step-daughter Snow White from her castle after finding out from her magic mirror that she is more visually attractive. 

She instructs the Huntsman to murder Snow White but he saves her and she flees to live with seven dwarfs, but she's then poisoned by the Queen, before being saved by Prince Charming who fell in love with her at the start of the movie. 

There is simply no way to argue that the 1937 movie is a reflection of a real woman – any woman, whether they're focused on love or their career.

As Mamamia's Chelsea McLaughlin's said on The Spill episode, Snow White has zero agency throughout the film: the story is happening to her and she plays no role in her fate. 

Listen to the entire chat on The Spill here. Post continues after podcast.

Of course, right-wing commenters were quick to dismiss Zegler's comments as woke propaganda. In one tweet by The Centerview, they wrote "Hollywood is programming young girls to hate men." 

But the criticism hasn't just been focused on what the actor said about her upcoming movie – there are just as many viral TikToks where people are simply just mocking the way she speaks. 

The internet has decided that Rache Zegler is cringe. Yes, that's right, we have another case of 'annoying woman syndrome' in Hollywood. 

These are the women who are essentially cancelled and dismissed by fans for caring too much, being too earnest, taking themselves too seriously. 

Anne Hathaway is the epitome of this type of so-called 'Annoying Woman', and thankfully, in the last five years she's enjoyed a well-earned redemption arc. 

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when the world turned against Hathaway but her 2011 attempt at hosting the Oscars with James Franco was significant. Hathaway came across as a cringey over-the-top drama kid while Franco did the bare minimum. The pair bombed and somehow, the fault was mostly laid on Hathaway. 

Another Hollywood leading lady whose career never recovered from the 'annoying woman' curse was Katherine Heigl. The actor was the biggest name in Hollywood in the early '00s, starring in Grey's Anatomy and leading some of the decade's biggest rom-coms. But then she started to complain about her job –  big mistake, huge! 

Firstly in 2008, she declined being considered for an Emmy, citing that her Grey's Anatomy character Izzie was not “given the material” to warrant a win in season four of the medical drama.

Then that same year, she dared to say that her film Knocked Up – a slacker comedy about a group of cool dudes and two whiny women – was actually, rather sexist. 

“It paints the women as shrews, as humourless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys,” Heigl said in an interview to Vanity Fair. 

“I had a hard time with it, on some days. I’m playing such a bitch; why is she being such a killjoy?”

Image: Universal Pictures. 

Kristen Stewart has had a bristly relationship with the public since her breakout role as Bella Swan in Twilight. In a 2021 interview with The Sunday Times, Kristen made some comments that sealed her fate as an 'annoying' personality. 

She referred to her career trajectory as “a total crapshoot," and said she had “probably made five really good films," throughout her entire movie catalogue. 

Of course, it's typically women who are crucified for making these kinds of comments, while a male actor sharing a similar statement would be met with praise or humour. 

This isn't the first time Zegler has been judged for apparently not saying the right thing. The actor copped heat for the way she responded to being constantly asked about her West Side Story co-star Ansel Elgort's allegations.

In June 2020, a Twitter user accused the Baby Driver actor of sexually assaulting her in 2014, when she was 17 and he was 20. West Side Story was released in 2021, but Elgort did minimal press leading to Zegler being constantly expected to answer for his allegations.

“I was sitting there having just turned 19, on the precipice of what was promised to be the biggest moment in my life, and was being held accountable [by the public] for accusations that not only had nothing to do with me," she told Elle in 2022, reflecting on the public's response. 

More recently, a video of Rachel from the SAG-AFTRA picket lines was criticised on TikTok. In the clip, the actor can be heard telling the camera, “If I’m gonna stand there 18 hours in a dress of an iconic Disney princess, I deserve to be paid for every hour that it’s streamed online.”

Did she lie?

Basically, Zegler can't say, or do, anything right at this stage. 

Hopefully, the young actor isn't destined for Hathaway's fate of having to ride out a decade of senseless criticism, but when it comes to Hollywood's toxic double standards for women coupled with TikTok's hunger for celebrity cancellations – I wouldn't hold my breath. 

Feature image: Getty.