Lebanon has banned Disney’s live-action Snow White from screening in theatres due to the film starring Israeli actor Gal Gadot. As per Variety, the country’s Interior Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar ordered the ban, following Israel’s ongoing attacks on Hezbollah, which has resulted in over 70 civilian deaths.
A representative for Beirut-based distributor Italia Films, however, told Variety that Gadot has always been on Lebanon’s “Israel boycott list”, as none of the films she has starred in has ever been released in the country.
Gadot, who plays the Evil Queen in Snow White, formerly served in the IDF and has avidly defended her country of birth. Condemning the attacks of October 7, 2023 on Instagram, she wrote, “I stand with Israel. You should too. The world cannot sit on the fence when these horrific acts of terror are happening!”
On October 12, she posted an Instagram Story that mentioned Palestine. “Killing innocent Palestinians is horrific. Killing of innocent Israelis is horrific. If you don’t feel the same, I think you should ask yourself why that is,” she wrote.
The post backfired among fellow Israelis, after which the Wonder Woman actor deleted the post and never spoke up about Palestine again. In her apology, she said, “All I want is to speak out for Israel in the world and to show the horrors that we are experiencing and to help obtain worldwide support in the face of our critics.”
Clashing with a co-star
The Snow White remake has been swirling in controversies ever since its release. In March, Variety claimed that the period following the film’s release had been rife with tension due to the political differences dividing Gadot and pro-Palestine co-star Rachel Zegler.
Controversy sparked after Zegler referred to Gadot as a “professional pageant queen” in an Instagram comment, following their Oscar appearances earlier that month. “She didn’t understand the repercussions of her actions as far as what that meant for the film, for Gal, for anyone,” an insider said.
Sources claimed that the two “got along well” during filming and that tensions escalated post-release. Disney’s decision to separate them during promotions only added to the speculation.
To dial back, Zegler has been outspoken in her support towards Palestine on social media. In August, she took to X to thank fans for the love on the Snow White trailer, though not without a reminder. “And always remember, free Palestine,” she wrote.
As per Variety, the statement prompted Disney executives to contact the actor’s team, with producer Marc Platt flying out to speak to her in person. When an Instagram user called out the act in a now-deleted post, the producer’s son Jonah Platt came to his father’s defense and wrote that it was Zegler’s “actions” that harmed the film.
“My dad, the producer of an enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20-year-old employee for dragging her personal politics in the middle of promoting the movie, for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for,” he wrote.
Platt added, “This is called adult responsibility and accountability. And her actions clearly hurt the film’s box office. Free speech does not mean you’re allowed to say whatever you want in your private employment without repercussions.”
Blaming Zegler for jeopardising the efforts of the crew, he said, “Tens of thousands of people worked on that film, and she hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues, crew, and blue-collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged.”
