BREAKING NEWS: Rachel Zegler hits at death threats following Snow White trailer release, “Fun fact I will be dying eight times a week on broadway this fall”…see more

During a sit-down discussion with The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey, Rachel Zegler finally addresses the online backlash she’s faced ever since being cast as Snow White…

Rachel Zegler has finally weighed in on the online backlash she came up against after being cast as the lead in Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White.

The 22-year-old actress faced some pretty extreme levels of criticism, and has now addressed the negativity she’s experienced during a sit-down discussion with.

The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey – who is no stranger to dealing with this sort of thing herself – for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” series.

The initial wave of criticism arose from the fact that Zegler is of Colombian origin, but the naysayers were given more ammo when the Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes star said she wasn’t a fan of the original animated classic (because it scared her as a kid), and mentioned that the story contained some problematic elements (stalker Prince, etc) than really should be updated for modern audiences.

This obviously doesn’t seem like anything to make too much of a fuss about, but there did seem to be a perception that Zegler came across like she didn’t really care for the character or the story.

Thankfully, Zegler doesn’t seem to be letting the trolls get to her, although she does acknowledge that it can be very difficult to reason with certain people, and attempting to do so tends to make the situation worse.

“Choosing thankfulness and gratefulness is choosing peace. As much as you’d like to remind people verbally that being in the spotlight doesn’t absolve you of your humanity — that you’re allowed to have human moments — it doesn’t necessarily do what you want it to do. It fuels them more.”

“So it’s choosing to be present and know that they’re probably just having a really hard day. And I’m putting out a movie,” she added.