Unlike the film’s box-office performance, the drama surrounding Snow White shows no signs of slowing down. In March, after what seemed like a pretty tense press tour and a disappointing audience turnout, Variety published a story that seemed to suggest that some people were blaming the movie’s poor performance on Rachel Zegler’s outspoken political stance. Producer Marc Platt (of Wicked and being-Ben’s-dad fame) reportedly flew across the country last year to admonish Zegler for her pro-Palestine posts. Following the publication of the article, Platt’s other son, Jonah, rushed to his dad’s defense on Instagram, responding to a comment on his account by claiming that Zegler had “dragged her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie.” Now, a player from Zegler’s past has entered the story. Her West Side Story co-star Ariana DeBose posted a direct quote of Jonah Platt’s diatribe to Instagram but then claimed it wasn’t meant to be a diss. What the heck is going on here?
On Wednesday, DeBose shared (and quickly deleted) a graphic that read “Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged” in flashing letters over a background of roses. The post was soundtracked to “Cozy,” one of Beyoncé’s self-confidence anthems. The quote came directly from Jonah Platt’s ticked-off Instagram comment about Zegler.
Before we unpack this, a brief detour into Zegler and DeBose’s history: Rumors of a feud between the actresses go all the way back to 2022, when they seemingly unfollowed each other on Instagram and Twitter after the Oscars, where DeBose took home an award for her West Side Story performance. The two crossed paths again earlier this year when DeBose was reportedly in talks to star in Jamie Lloyd’s West End production of Evita. She eventually dropped out “due to scheduling,” and last month it was announced that Zegler would star in the musical instead.
But back to the present tense. Because of their history, people automatically assumed that DeBose had posted this Instagram graphic as a shot at Zegler. But the day after it appeared, she insisted in yet another post that she just randomly found the quote and decided it was worth sharing.
“I post quotes all the time and thought this one was meaningful,” DeBose wrote on her Instagram Story. This is not really true, at least not on her grid, where the post in question appeared before she took it down. The last time she posted a quote was for International Women’s Day, and the time before that was right before the election. Maybe that’s what she considers “all the time.” DeBose continued, writing, “Will fully cop to the fact I did not do any research on where this quote came from, nor did I know the connection until it was pointed out to me. I have no intention of inserting myself into a news cycle.”
So, to be clear, what DeBose is suggesting is that she just happened to come across an out-of-context section of Jonah Platt’s dig at Rachel Zegler and found it so moving that she had to share it with her followers? Hmmm. This is either shoddy backtracking or DeBose really is that clueless. Given her track record, it could be either.
