Game Of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage used a recent podcast interview to blast Disney’s planned creation of a live-action remake of its first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Last year, the company announced the role of Snow White was going to Latino actress Rachel Zegler, who played Maria in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story.
What was Dinklage’s problem?
The seven dwarfs, obviously. The actor said: “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.
“Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. You’re progressive in one way, but then you’re still making that f****** backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together?”
He’s been known to sound off about issues like this before, hasn’t he?
That's part of his despair. He said: “Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”
Dinklage has been drawing attention to woeful attitudes towards dwarfs in the media and society for well over a decade. For instance, in his 2012 Golden Globe acceptance speech, he mentioned the shocking assault of a man in an apparent act of “dwarf tossing”. And, in an interview with the New York Times that year, he said: “Dwarfs are still the butt of jokes. It’s one of the last bastions of acceptable prejudice. Not just by people who’ve had too much to drink in England and want to throw a person. But by the media, everything.”
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Were dwarfs always part of the Snow White story?
While they were of course a feature of the Brothers Grimm story and also the 1937 original Disney film, they do not even appear in many folk versions of Snow White.
For example, one French tale has Snow White living in a well with three dragons; a Flemish version sees her looked after by seven kabouters (leprechaun-like creatures); and a Spanish story has her living with four men inside a rock. Magical dwarfs are clearly not essential to the tale.
What has Disney’s response to Dinklage’s criticisms been?
They have suggested they will replace the dwarfs with some kind of “magical creatures” and released the following statement: “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.”
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