they're being weird about Rachel Zegler again

Hello, I'm Ben Platt and my dad is marc platt produer of Wicked

Mar 28, 2025

Surprise, surprise, people hate Rachel Zegler for being pretty and talented. Couldn’t be me, but sure.

As a fierce, day one Rachel defender - and I mean day one, pre West Side Story, singing musical theatre songs in her bathroom on YouTube, day one - I am biased. We’ve never met, and public perception can only count for so much, but from where I stand, Rachel is a talented, ambitious, and kind young woman who has been the victim of repeated smear campaigns, racially charged attacks, and efforts to scapegoat her for the failures of major motion picture companies. She continuously handles it all like the true Taylor Swift fan she is, brushing it off, protecting her peace, and distancing herself from the narrative.

The latest attempt to tear down this theatre kid from Jersey is an obvious and blatant hit piece in Variety blaming Rachel for the box office failure of Disney’s live action Snow White remake (a film which I have not seen but is currently the #1 movie in the world…despite its “failure”).

This strategy of scapegoating women of color for box office performance is not new for Disney. Their most recent victim, pre-Rachel, was Nia DaCosta, director of The Marvels, a film which opened in theaters the day of the SAG-AFTRA strike resolution, and also “underperformed” at the box office. The Variety writer, Tatiana Siegel, is responsible for both.

Siegel opens the Snow White piece, titled “Inside Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Fiasco: Death Threats, Beefed-Up Security and a Social Media Guru for Rachel Zegler”, by noting Rachel tweeted her thanks to Snow White supporters and the words “free Palestine” in the same thread last August. A statement which, according to Variety, had “many inside the studio expressing shock that the “Snow White” star would commingle the promotion of its $270 million tentpole with any kind of political statement”.

I, on the other hand, would like to express my shock that a “$270 million tentpole” would cast an “actor” of the caliber of Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. But don’t worry, Variety makes sure we know that Gal and her “acting” are in no way responsible for the film’s performance. In fact, she is, apparently, just as much a victim of Rachel as Disney is. Sure.

Siegel tries to allege that Rachel’s support of Palestine (one tweet) is directly related to an increased security presence for Gal’s protection due to death threats. No information on the security Rachel was provided after the death threats she received for simply daring to be a Latina cast as Snow White. Oh wait…

The nugget of information the internet has chosen to run with, however, is Siegel’s name drop of Snow White producer, Marc Platt, who according to the article, “flew to New York to speak directly with [Rachel]”. Platt seemingly crossed the country to beg her to delete the tweet face to face but you can see for yourself how that went.

Marc Platt, the internet is slowly learning, is not only the producer of Snow White. He is the producer of Wicked - both the musical and movie - and countless other movies and musicals, many of which are on my list of favorites. He does good work. Sometimes.

He is also the father to five Platt children, including Ben, who he famously allowed to appear in the deeply embarrassing film, Dear Evan Hansen, which, oh by the way, he also produced.

The Platts are no stranger to nepotism. Marc’s son Jonah once played the role of Fiyero on Broadway in what, as someone who witnessed his performance, I can comfortably say was an affront to Jonathan Bailey. A casting decision that now seems a direct result of Daddy making a call. At least be clever with your nepotism! It’s so boring when you do it out in the open like that.

Jonah has recently made a new name for himself and is now no longer just “nepobaby Fiyero” but also “Rachel Zegler cyberbully”! In a since deleted Instagram comment defending his father, Jonah calls Rachel immature, narcissistic, and implies that his father had to abandon his family to ask her to delete the tweet. His family of adult, 30 year old children. Jonah explicitly blames Rachel for the film’s box office performance after “dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie”. Her politics which are “genocide is bad” and also “Donald Trump is bad”.

Because that was the other thing, according to Variety, Rachel posting “Fuck Donald Trump” post election was the final straw for Disney and a “social media guru” was hired by the company to approve any post she would make before the film’s release. Cool.

Well, all that and it didn’t work. The movie is underperforming at the box office, critics didn’t like it - aside from Rachel’s performance, and Jonah Platt is embarrassing himself making headlines as “producer’s son”.

It is interesting to me that Rachel’s “politics” are cause for concern but not Jonah’s, or Gal’s, or even The Walt Disney Company. Huh. I wonder why that would be? I also wonder why the Variety article makes explicit mention of Gal Gadot’s Israeli heritage and four children as rationale for her hired security but can make no mention of the viscous, violent, and racist attacks actors of color under the Disney brand have been subjected to. No protections for Rachel, for Halle Bailey, for Moses Ingram, for John Boyega, for Kelly Marie Tran, or for Leah Jeffries just to name a few. All actors leading “tentpole” Disney properties and left to fend for themselves against the masses.

One of the most heartbreaking aspects of this latest hate crusade is that Rachel is no stranger to it. Whether it’s not speaking out “enough” about a costar accused of abuse, being too brown, being too white, not speaking Spanish, speaking too much Spanish, complaining about work, complaining about not having work, advocating for fair pay, going to the Oscars, supporting her friends, calling an 80 year old movie “outdated”, going to The Eras Tour, or “politics”, someone always has something to attack Rachel Zegler for. The world does not want her to win. And yet, the Golden Globe winning, Sondheim darling, Spielberg star, literal Disney Princess diva stays booked and blessed.

Leave! Rachel! Alone!

Bully the Platts instead. Never forget the original Platt nepotism, Ben’s entry to the “Addicted to Wicked” Facebook group. Grammar skills must run in the family.