Gal Gadot has said “pressure” to “speak out” against Israel led to Snow White flopping.
The Disney live-action version of Snow White saw Gadot play the Evil Queen, and was mired in controversy for much of the lead-up to its release, which included Peter Dinklage calling out Disney for the tale’s depiction of dwarves, Latina star Rachel Zegler facing racist comments online after being cast in the lead princess role, and an overwhelmingly negative reaction to its trailer.
Most notably, however, Gadot’s vocal support of Israel drew massive criticism. The Wonder Woman actor served as part of the Israeli Defence Force in the ‘00s and has been outspoken in defending its actions, previously saying her “conscience was clean” because she “felt like I had to advocate for the hostages“.
In 2023, she also joined several celebrities in signing an open letter voicing their support for Israel amid the ongoing Hamas war, and the fallout of the backlash surrounding the film saw Disney scale back press.
Gal Gadot gave a big interview tonite on Israeli TV, on the pressure in Hollywood to speak out against Israel pic.twitter.com/fBNuLAmeFt
— Betar Worldwide (@Betar_USA) August 16, 2025
Now, Gadot has blamed the “pressure on celebrities” to speak out against Israel as a factor that “greatly affected” the box office failure of the film.
During an appearance on Israeli show The A Talks on Thursday (August 14), Gadot said: “I even enjoyed working with Rachel Zegler. We laughed, we talked, and it was fun. I was sure that this movie was going to be a huge success,” (via Deadline).
“And then October 7 happened, and what’s happening in all kinds of industries, and also in Hollywood, is that there’s a lot of pressure on celebrities to speak out against Israel,” she continued.
Since Hamas’ attack on Israeli citizens at the Nova Music Festival on October 7 2023 – which killed over 1100 people and saw 250 taken as hostages – the UN has found Israel’s military actions to be consistent with genocide.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, at least 61,158 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023. Israel rejects the genocide accusations and denies committing any war crimes, maintaining that its operations are lawful acts of self-defence.
Gadot went on to say she could “always explain and try to give people in the world context about what’s happening and what the reality is here, but in the end, people decide for themselves.”
“I was disappointed,” she concluded, “that the movie was greatly affected by that and didn’t do well at the box office.”
The film had a disastrous opening in cinemas, making just $42.2million in the US, which was well below expectations given the film’s estimated $240–270million budget. It also went on to earn one of the lowest scores ever seen on IMDb (Internet Movie Database).
The backlash surrounding the film also saw Gadot criticised for not presenting the Best Documentary Oscar to a Palestinian filmmaker at this year’s Oscars, as well as having her Walk Of Fame ceremony disrupted by both pro-Israel and pro-Palestine protestors.
Gadot’s co-star Zegler’s political stance put her at odds with Disney, who reportedly hired a “social media guru” to vet her posts during the press tour for the new remake, after she herself drew criticism, with Sean Lennon called her a “spoiled, ungrateful and disconnected brat“, comments he later walked back.
