There is a huge, huge problem with live-action remakes, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the movies. No, the problem is that whenever a person of color is picked to play a previously white character, the internet turns to frothing-at-the-mouth racism.
This time, the target is Avantika Vandanapu, an actress known as simply Avantika. You might know her as Karen from the remake of Mean Girls, where she was a real standout. She’s funny, beautiful, and can sing, and those are the three main qualities you need when it comes to playing a live-action Disney princess. But because she is Indian, gatekeepers have viciously attacked her for… well, actually, they’ve harassed her for absolutely nothing, seeing as she hasn’t been cast to play Rapunzel at all. It was the mere whisper of the idea that got them going.
It all started back in April 2024, when rumor spread that Disney was making a live-action Tangled with Avantika in the lead role of Rapunzel. There was no confirmation whatsoever about this, but that didn’t stop the “anti-woke” racists descending on her. Her Instagram account was flooded with racist yelling. Avantika didn’t write anything in response to this (hopefully, she didn’t even see the comments), but her fans were understandably angry.
Now, there actually is a Tangled live-action remake coming. Director Michael Gracey, who helmed The Greatest Showman, is in talks to direct, and Avantika’s fans are now worried that the racist attacks will start again.
Things were so bad back in April that some Tangled fans would now rather Avantika (or any other woman of color) wasn’t cast as Rapunzel at all, just so she wouldn’t have to go through the trauma of receiving racist comments every day.
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Yes, unfortunately, the other two women of color cast to play once-white Disney princesses got an overwhelming amount of hate as well. Halle Bailey played Ariel in 2023’s The Little Mermaid and was hit with a deluge of anti-Black racism. “When the negative comments started, I was shocked, because it wasn’t something I really anticipated—at least not on that scale,” she told the Standard in 2023.
Rachel Zegler, meanwhile, is playing Snow White in a remake set to hit theaters in 2025, and she was likewise attacked by racists. She even responded to an outright death threat on the social media platform X—a troll wrote, “Someone should kill you,” and Zegler responded wittily, plugging her upcoming role in Romeo and Juliet by writing, “fun fact i will be dying eight times a week on broadway this fall!!!!!” She also tagged the FBI.
Later on, Zegler stood up for another Juliet, another woman of color who had been on the receiving end of horrific racism. This was Francesca Amewudah-Rivers, Juliet in the West End opposite Tom Holland. After details of her casting came out, she was subjected to a campaign of hate that was shocking even by the standards of social media. Zelger said of the incident, “I think she was failed by the people around her. You need to protect people when you make a vow to cast them in something where you know—you can’t act stupid, you know how the general public is going to act because they’ve been acting that way for years.”
And that’s the trouble – Disney and other big production companies do so little to protect their actors from racism. If they really did cast Avantika as Rapunzel, chances are she would be left to deal with the backlash alone, a horrific prospect for a young woman teetering on the edge of fame. It’s such a shame it’s come to the point where people would rather a promising up-and-coming actress didn’t get a major Disney role.
Published: Dec 12, 2024 11:18 am