Halle Bailey sits down with Rachel Zegler for ‘Actors on Actors’ series

Recent Disney castings Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid) and Rachel Zegler (Snow White) sat down to talk about being the latest Disney Princesses, toxic internet responses to their castings, and being grateful for what they have when the pair were put together for Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” series.

Both halves of this installment in Variety‘s series have had a major moment in Hollywood recently with Halle Bailey being cast as Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid and Rachel Zegler playing a main character in The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes as well as being announced for the upcoming Snow White remake.

Unfortunately for the pair of young actresses, not everyone is so ready to celebrate their accomplishments and the pair have been met with their fair share of criticism.

According to Halle Bailey, she’s been able to spin the negativity into a positive because the onslaught of negative attention has been able to teach her to block it out in order to focus on all of the love she gets from her fans.

t’s not easy, says the actress who refers to herself as a pretty sensitive person, but she had this to say about learning to ignore the hate:

"That’s what people don’t realize: We’re granted amazing opportunities and able to be seen on massive screens, but there is a dissociation. People start taking you away from being a real human being that has feelings and reacts to things. That was definitely something that I had to navigate. But it turned out to be the most beautiful lesson — to block any naysayers or negativity out."

Rachel Zegler agreed with what Bailey said and said that she chooses to be grateful and focus on the good instead of letting the hate get to her. “I feel so thankful for those moments because it started to make me feel like solid Teflon. That nothing can hurt anymore because they’ve said the worst that can be said,” Zegler told the fellow actress on how the negativity has impacted her.

The pair certainly have a lot to be thankful for and in their conversation, they acknowledge that. The two of them share that they each feel grateful for what they’ve been able to do for their communities.

Halle Bailey shares that she felt overwhelmed by the social media videos of young Black girls watching the trailer that showed her as Ariel and Rachel Zegler saying she similarly hopes to inspire young Latina girls when she appears in 2025’s Snow White.