On Monday, comments Peter Dinklage made about one of Disney’s next live-action remakes — of the company’s first feature-length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — went viral. What did he say? Well, he didn’t much care for how they were giving the hero a progressive face-lift, casting Latinx actress Rachel Zegler (West Side Story), but, he presumed, not doing the same for the septet of gentlemen who come to her aid. Dinklage’s comments prompted a response from Disney, who hoped to reassure people that, no, that’s not what they’re doing.
On a recent episode of Marc Maron’s podcast WTF, Dinklage railed against the Snow White reboot. “Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White — but you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” he said. “You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that f*cking backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together? What the f*ck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”
In a statement provided to The Hollywood Reporter, a Disney spokesperson revealed that actually they are trying to do something new with the seven dwarf characters.
“To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community,” the statement read. “We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”
Disney did not reveal exactly what they’ll be doing with those seven characters, but they are reportedly working with cultural consultants, as they did on their redos of Aladdin and Mulan, which avoided casting Caucasian actors in roles meant for Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian characters, respectively.
(Via THR)
