Ariana DeBose quickly issued a clarification after deleting a post directly quoting criticism of her 'West Side Story' costar Rachel Zegler, saying she 'did not do any research' before posting.
ew.com
Ariana DeBose deletes post quoting criticism of
DeBose's original post directly quoted the son of Zegler's 'Snow White' producer Marc Platt, who said her "narcissism is not something to be coddled."
By
Ryan Coleman
Published on April 1, 2025 09:57PM EDT
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Ariana Debose and Rachel Zegler.Credit:
Valerie Terranova/Getty; Dia Dipasupil/Getty
- Ariana DeBose shared a post on Instagram directly quoting criticism of her West Side Story costar Rachel Zegler from Jonah Platt, the son of Zegler's Snow White producer Marc Platt.
- DeBose later deleted the post and issued a clarification via an Instagram story, which read in part, "I did not do any research on where this quote came from."
- Platt initially criticized Zegler for posting in support of Palestine shortly after the release of the Snow White trailer, a move he described as illustrative of Zegler's "narcissism."
Ariana DeBose issued a clarification shortly after sharing a post to her Instagram that directly quoted recent criticism of her
West Side Story costar
Rachel Zegler.
"I post quotes all the time and thought this one was meaningful," DeBose shared in an Instagram story on Tuesday. "Will fully cop to the fact that I did not do any research on where this quote came from, nor did I know of the connection until it was pointed out to me."
Ariana DeBose on Instagram.
Ariana Debose/Instagram
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to reps for both Zegler and DeBose.
Earlier this afternoon, Debose shared a post which she then reposted to her story that read, "Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged." The post directly quoted a
now-deleted comment by Jonah Platt, son of Zegler's
Snow White producer
Marc Platt, which took aim at Zegler posting in support of Palestine shortly after the release of the film's trailer, a move that the younger Platt implied hurt the live-action remake at the box office.
Platt claimed that Zegler "hijacked the conversation for her own immature desires at the risk of all the colleagues and crew and blue collar workers who depend on that movie to be successful. Narcissism is not something to be coddled or encouraged."
Snow White producer's son blames Rachel Zegler for poor box office: 'She hijacked the conversation'
DeBose continued in her clarification to note that she has "no intention of inserting myself into a news cycle. This is not the first time I've posted about dealing with narcissism before and it probably won't be the last, but next time I'll be sure to clarify its origins first."
The X post which kicked off the chain of accusations and deletions came from Zegler on Aug. 12, 2024. After
thanking fans for racking up 120 million views on the
Snow White trailer within a day of its release, Zegler followed up with a
post that read, "and always remember, free palestine."
A March 25 report from
Variety alleged that Marc Platt "flew to New York to speak directly with" Zegler after she made the post. Two days later, Jonah responded to a comment on an
Instagram post for his
Being Jewish podcast which raised this allegation by saying, "Yeah, my dad, the producer of enormous piece of Disney IP with hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, had to leave his family to fly across the country to reprimand his 20-year-old employee for dragging her personal politics into the middle of promoting the movie for which she signed a multi-million dollar contract to get paid and do publicity for," according to
screen grabs circulating online.
Ariana DeBose on Instagram.
Ariana Debose/Instagram
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DeBose has not shared any quotes presented without caption to her Instagram over the past year. But the
Love Hurts star is outspokenly political, sharing posts
advocating for women's rights and
urging her followers last October to vote for Kamala Harris over Donald Trump in the presidential election.
Rachel Zegler says she was asked by white execs if she was a 'legit' Latina in West Side Story casting
Ariana DeBose and Rachel Zegler in 'West Side Story'.
Niko Tavernise/20th Century Studios
Zelger and DeBose first worked together on
Steven Spielberg's 2021 remake of
West Side Story, which gave Zegler her first screen role and won DeBose an Oscar.
In January, DeBose told
Deadline that she was in talks to star in
Evita at the London Palladium, but by the end of the month she had reportedly
moved on. In March, Zegler was
announced as the lead in the Tony-winning
Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, which will be directed by Jamie Lloyd.
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