Once Upon a Reboot: Erin Cressida Wilson Reimagines ‘Snow White’

In writing the screenplay for the live-action remake of Snow White, Erin Cressida Wilson was charged with reinventing one of the most beloved Disney animated features in cinema history. But she rose to the challenge with a vibrant take on the tale, where the titular character is no longer a victim lying in wait for her prince to come. Instead, Snow White 2.0, played with plucky resolve by Rachel Zegler, is a more modernized woman - destined to lead her kingdom with a compassion her Evil Queen stepmother (Gal Gadot) sorely lacks. This new Snow White also takes a sterner posture with the Seven Dwarfs—teaching them how to clean their messy cottage instead of picking up a broom herself. She also brings the voiceless Dopey out of his shell by lovingly teaching him how to whistle.

“My task was to dive into the character of Snow White and find what second act her story begged for,” said Cressida Wilson, who spoke with Script Magazine’s Andrew Bloomenthal about putting a new spin on an old classic.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

ANDREW BLOOMENTHAL: What was your entrée point in writing a remake of such an iconic film?

ERIN CRESSIDA WILSON: I let myself think about Snow White's persona and her journey, and I was struck by Dopey. I thought about how we know Dopey doesn't speak, but we never think about why he doesn’t speak. And then it came to me: he’s disenfranchised the same way Snow White is. His friends are mean to him and they beat up on him, the way Snow White is beaten up on by her stepmother. Her voice is being silenced - not literally, but with Dopey, his voice is literally silenced, so Snow White and Dopey’s relationship was core to the story.

At the same time, we were trying to figure out how to take a song like Whistle While You Work and make it relevant. Then I thought it would be cool to have Snow White teach Dopey how to whistle so he can start expressing himself through that song. So that became a lesson from Snow White to Dopey, where she learns that she can speak up too -and eventually does.

[The producers] also gave me a book by Disney called The Fairest One Of All, which goes into the history of the making of the original. It influenced many developments in the script that we spent years on, which were ultimately scrapped, but they led to the next iteration of what was created. For instance, in one of the book’s ideas, they had the mirror chasing the Queen and shattering, so I knew immediately she needed to be swallowed by her vanity, i.e. swallowed by that mirror, so one of the first images I had was that at the end, where she breaks the mirror because she's out of her mind, and I wanted it to shatter at her and then take her back inside the mirror where she belongs. So that was one of my first thoughts.

Another early thought was, “Why is Snow White’s hair so short?” I decided it would be the Queen’s punishment to cut her hair off so she wouldn't be as pretty and wouldn't be such competition. It put her in her place and clipped her wings.

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AB: The film notably has no prince. Instead, the love interest is a handsome bandit named Jonathan. Tell me about that decision.

ECW: Frankly, I didn't want anybody in tights. That was the one flippant remark I kept saying. I don't mind her being saved, just not by a guy in tights. And she is saved by him. They save each other. But I wanted him to be a character that I think Andrew Burnap, who plays Jonathan, really developed beautifully with Rachel Zegler. He’s a real human who’s flawed, who’s angry, and who learns to love again.

AB: Were you given any broad brushstrokes by the producers to incorporate into the script?

ECW: The only mandate I was given was to keep [the songs] Whistle While You Work and Heigh-Ho, and Silly Song. Other than that - nothing.

AB: You also collaborated with the songwriters on new songs. Were you given some of the proposed lyrics so you could write the corresponding action to the words?

ECW: I mean, it's not quite that simple. The songs are the script and the script is the songs. It was very collaborative, and [songwriter] Benj Pasek would tell me to write, write, write and hand over the sheets of paper which informed his lyrics. That's why the Whistle While You Work had to have a purpose—to get Dopey and his friends to stop being disorganized and stop hating one another and to get them in a peaceful place where they learn to clean up and fall in love with each other again - and fall in love with Snow White. They all need each other, so they're not walking through this forest alone. So if you feel it coming up in the script, it blooms in the song.

AB: Do you have any musical background?

ECW: I've written a few musicals, but that's it. I've done enough to understand that this is hard to do, and this kind of collaboration is intense, intricate, mathematical.

AB: Let’s discuss the opening image. It started with like a static shot of a storybook that became animated, and then became live action, and then the narration kicked in to give it a thematic through line. Tell me about that opening and the decision to use narration.

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ECW: I knew I’d have a narrator who says Snow White was “born on a snowy evening” because that was the reason I wanted her to be named Snow White. And there's something about voiceover - especially for a storybook, which is read aloud to children, that really helps them enter the story.

AB: This question is a bit granular. In the film, there were seven bandits, just like there were seven dwarfs. Did you always plan for that symmetry—seven and seven?

ECW: I don't remember writing “seven” in the script, but there were always bandits - the only humans in the magical forest, hoping to fight for the king and against injustice.

Snow White is now in Theaters.