Peter Dinklage is one of the most popular actors in the game right now. He was the best part of Game of Thrones and also had key roles in the Avengers and X-Men movies. So when Peter Dinklage talks – the industry listens, and Dinklage recently had something to say about the live-action ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ remake that Disney is planning.
Dinklage, who has frequently railed against dwarf stereotypes in Hollywood movies, branded the story ‘backwards’ on the WTF Podcast with Marc Maron this week, and claimed it was insensitive to dwarves:
You’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that f**king backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the f**k are you doing man?
Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me.
Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.
Which led to this statement from Disney:
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. We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.
I just love how Disney, who basically own the entire entertainment industry at this point, immediately bowed to Dinklage, and all he had to do was say he was disgusted by them on a random podcast. At the same time though, I’m not sure I agree with his concerns. After all, the story is literally about seven dwarves… should they not hire seven dwarves to play those parts? Should they shoot ‘Snow White and the Seven Average Heighted Dudes’? I don’t know what the solution is and I’m not sure Peter Dinklage or Disney do either. It does seem pretty messed up that seven dwarf actors could lose out on a job because of Dinklage’s comments though. Maybe they should offer him the role of Grumpy and see if he changes his tune?
As I said though – great to see one actor exert this much pressure on a global entertainment powerhouse like Disney. Go Peter Go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZhrEKaUsgo
