Chloe Grace Moretz Apologizes For ‘Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs’ Body-Shaming Ad
Chloe Grace Moretz expressed her disgust at how the marketing team for her upcoming animated film Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs handled its promotion in response Twitter backlash for promoting body-shaming on cinema.
The retelling of the classic tale of Snow White where Moretz voiced the lead character became subject of criticism from social media users particularly those on Twitter who noticed the apparent body-shaming theme in the film’s poster that was highlighted at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
According to the Huffington Post, members of the press who attended the event Tweeted images of the questionable poster after jury member Jessica Chastain talked about “disturbing” portrayal of women in recent movies like Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs.
The image in the marketing material for Chloe Grace Moretz’s movie compares a tall, skinny girl with a shorter, chubby one of the same character was captioned with a question that may have crossed the line on body shaming.
“What if Snow White was no longer beautiful and the 7 Dwarfs not so short?”
Taking her opinion of the poster to Twitter, model Tess Holliday called out the marketing team for the animated movie as well as Chloe who voices the heroine of the story for implying that being fat means being ugly.
How did this get approved by an entire marketing team? Why is it okay to tell young kids being fat = ugly? ??@ChloeGMoretz pic.twitter.com/PVhgwluGTM
— Tess H?lliday (@Tess_Holliday) May 30, 2017
In response, Chloe Grace Moretz apologized over the social media and clarified that she and her team did not approve the body-shaming marketing material.
I have now fully reviewed the mkting for Red Shoes, I am just as appalled and angry as everyone else, this wasn't approved by me or my team
— Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) May 31, 2017
She also said that after completing her review of the Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs poster and trailer which was also criticized and has since been removed online, the 20-year-old actress “have let the producers of the film know” of her opinion.
Pls know I have let the producers of the film know. I lent my voice to a beautiful script that I hope you will all see in its entirety https://t.co/IOIXYZTc3g
— Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) May 31, 2017
But while she is not happy with the body-shaming ad, Chloe Grace Moretz still came to the defense of the upcoming movie.
In another Tweet, the young Hollywood star known for her roles in the movie adaptations of young adult novels If I Stay and The 5th Wave said that Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs actually has a good plot that tells the story of women empowerment.
The actual story is powerful for young women and resonated with me. I am sorry for the offense that was beyond my creative control https://t.co/HZP2ydPCAX
— Chloë Grace Moretz (@ChloeGMoretz) May 31, 2017
Produced by the South Korean animation studio Locus, the animated film that retells the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs where seven handsome princes try to find an enchanted pair of red shoes that can break a spell that turned them into dwarfs and find that it was being worn by a girl who uses it to transform herself “from short and curvy to tall and slender,” per Entertainment Weekly.
Based on the synopsis of the film as posted on the studio’s official website cited by Refinery, the twist in the story is as Chloe Grace Moretz described: realizing the value of self-acceptance.
As it turns out, princess in Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs voiced by the actress is someone “who doesn’t fit into the celebrity world of Princesses — or their dress size.”
“In her quest to find her lost father, she learns not only to accept herself, but to celebrate who she is, inside and out.”
Unfortunately, the marketing materials particularly the poster featured in Cannes and the trailer itself were not able to highlight what could have been a great moral lesson. Instead, it became a promotion for body-shaming, the outlet said of the trailer that is now removed from the Internet.
The marketing team could have made more effort to portray that exact message the movie was expected to deliver in a way that would not emphasize biases on beauty based on size. After all, it is an animated movie. Anything is possible.
Did you think the poster and trailers for Chloe Grace Moretz’s animated movie promotes body-shaming? Sound off your reaction to Red Shoes and the Seven Dwarfs in the comments below.
[Featured Image by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for The Trevor Project]
