Rachel Zegler has responded to the “angry” criticism over her casting as Snow White in a new Disney film.

Last June, producers announced that the West Side Story actress had landed the lead role in the upcoming live-action remake of the 1937 animated classic.

Shortly after, online trolls criticised Disney executives for selecting a woman of Latin descent to appear as Snow White, and in a new interview for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Zegler explained that she feels a responsibility to “educate” those people.

“It was a huge thing that was trending on Twitter for days, because all of the people were angry,” she told Andrew Garfield, to which he replied :”Ah, those people. The people that we need to educate. The people that we need to love into awareness.”

Zegler added: “We need to love them in the right direction. At the end of the day, I have a job to do that I’m really excited to do. I get to be a Latina princess.”

Elsewhere in the chat, the rising star noted the character of Snow White is a “big deal” in many Spanish-speaking countries.

“Blanca Nieves is a huge icon whether you’re talking about the Disney cartoon or just different iterations and the Grimm fairy tale and all the stories that come with it. But you don’t particularly see people who look like me or are me playing roles like that,” the 20-year-old added.

Snow White, also starring Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, is currently in production.

– Cover Media