Rachel Zegler and Halle Bailey's roads to Disney stardom have been less than a fairytale. The young actresses—who portray The Little Mermaid and Snow White in their respective titular live-action films (though the latter will not hit theaters until 2025)—made history when they were cast as two of the House of Mouse's most iconic princesses,. However, their boundary-breaking castings have also sparked criticism and backlash among Disney die-hards.
Though many Disney fans rejoiced at the racial diversity of a "Black Ariel" and Zegler's casting as the first Latina actress to play a live-action Disney princess, others balked at the fact that the performers didn't look exactly like the characters they knew from the original animated films. Bailey and Zegler bonded over their casting controversies during their discussion for Variety's Actors on Actors series, with the latter revealing that she was "so inspired" by how Bailey proved "any naysayer out there" wrong:
