IMDb has added the following disclaimer to its ratings page for Snow White, which ranks the controversial Rachel Zegler-led live-action remake as one of the worst movies of all time: “Unusual activity: Our rating mechanism has detected unusual voting activity on this title.”
That disclaimer was probably to be expected, given how much intense criticism the movie has drawn. Here’s the thing, though; for all the trouble that Snow White and its exceedingly vain star have brought on themselves, there’s one under-appreciated aspect of this mess that strikes me as especially unusual — it’s that the camera operators were able to make it through the whole thing without constantly laughing at Gal Gadot’s comically bad acting.
To be clear: Snow White failed the most epic of fails because Disney chose to ignore the law of supply and demand. No one was demanding a modernized airbrushing of this animated classic, yet Disney chose to supply one anyway. At the risk of stating the obvious, floating that basic economic principle all by itself ensured this remake would crash into a brick wall of embarrassment. Among the many flaws plaguing Snow White, though, one that stands out like a sore thumb dipped in glitter is Gadot’s performance as the Evil Queen.
Her portrayal was obviously meant to be delightfully camp. But rather than deliver a wickedly fun performance, Gadot careens between overly dramatic and wooden, like a performer in a community theater production attempting to channel a Disney villain but missing the mark entirely. The result is a performance so unintentionally funny that it feels like a “Try Not to Laugh” challenge rather than a part in a Hollywood drama.
Gadot’s performance is so bad that it’s seriously hard not to wonder: How did the camera operators not burst into laughter every time they had to film her? One Twitter user put it bluntly: “Gal [Gadot’s] acting is so painfully bad.” Over on Threads, the sentiment was echoed in even harsher terms: “Good god, I heard Gal Gadot was bad in Snow White, but I wasn’t expecting her to treat the movie like an SNL skit.”
For a film that boasts a visually stunning production design and the occasional catchy original song, Snow White’s few redeeming qualities are entirely overshadowed by its flaws. The movie currently holds a 40% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes (based on 235 reviews as of this writing) and a historically bad 1.5/10 on IMDb, based on 281,000 ratings.
Zegler, despite all the controversy surrounding her comments outside of the film, at least brings an earnestness to the role of Snow White. She shines in the musical elements and does her best to capture the essence of the character. But unfortunately, much of her performance is wasted, as she’s often acting against terrible-looking CGI dwarfs or Gadot’s one-dimensional, wooden portrayal of the Evil Queen.
Some viewers who have long defended Gadot’s acting abilities, meanwhile, are now questioning their past assessments. As one Threads user bluntly asked: “Why did it take 8 years for everyone to realize that Gal Gadot was always a terrible actress?” That’s an especially brutal assessment, but one that more and more viewers seem to agree with after this performance.
The backlash has even sparked a larger debate about casting in Hollywood. Another particularly scathing take from Threads declared: “Anyone who casts Gal Gadot should be fired. Not because she’s Jewish, she’s just a terrible actress.”
In the end, Snow White’s downfall was inevitable. Between the misguided modernization, lackluster CGI, and a lead actress who alienated potential viewers, it was already fighting an uphill battle. But thanks to Gadot’s performance, the film’s legacy might be as an unintentional comedy rather than a tragic misfire. The Evil Queen may be obsessed with being the fairest of them all, but in this case, she’s simply the funniest — just not in the way Disney intended.
