Israeli actor Gal Gadot said pressure on celebrities to speak out against Israel tanked the box office for “Snow White.”
In an interview on Israeli TV recently, Gadot, who played the evil queen in the much-hyped Disney remake, spoke to reporters on the autism spectrum who asked about the flop.
“I was sure that this movie was going to be a huge success, and then October 7 happened, and what’s happening in all kinds of industries, and also in Hollywood, is that there’s a lot of pressure on celebrities to speak out against Israel,” she said, per the Jerusalem Post.
“You can always explain and try to give people in the world a context about what’s happening and what the reality is here, but in the end, people decide for themselves,” she continued. “I was disappointed that the movie was greatly affected by that and didn’t do well at the box office.”
Gadot spoke out in support of Israel before the film’s opening in March. She said the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas that triggered a massive Israeli retaliation in Gaza would not keep her silent. “I was shocked by the amount of hate, by the amount of how much people think they know when they actually have no idea, and also by how the media is not fair many times,” she said. “So I had to speak up.”
Her co-star who played Snow White, Rachel Zegler, was blamed by the son of “Snow White” producer Marc Platt for sinking the film’s chances.
Alluding to a report that the executive met with Zegler about expressing her pro-Palestinian views in an online exchange about the “Snow White” trailer, Jonah Platt wrote: “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 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.”
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Asked about her relationship with Zegler, Gadot told interviewers last week she enjoyed working with Zegler. “We laughed, we talked, and it was fun,” she said.