10 Actors Who Already Hate Upcoming Movies
3. Peter Dinklage - Snow White
Disney is imminently due to start shooting its new live-action Snow White film, which made major headlines last year when West Side Story star Rachel Zegler was cast as Snow White.
As with The Little Mermaid, the Latina Zegler's casting as a character previously portrayed as white-skinned proved controversial with certain quarters of the Internet, though Disney clapped back that they were proud to have cast a Latina actress in the part.
But this didn't sit too kindly with Peter Dinklage, who felt that Disney were hypocritical in patting themselves on the back all while telling a story that is, in its bones, deeply regressive in its depiction of dwarfs. On a recent episode of Marc Maron's WTF podcast, Dinklage said:
"Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback when [Disney] 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**king backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together? What the f**k are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I'm not loud enough.
The comments picked up enough traction that Disney issued their own statement in reply:
"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."
The Hollywood Reporter also confirmed that the film will be portraying the dwarfs through CGI, which itself opens Disney up to further criticism for taking potential jobs away from dwarf actors.
It'll be interesting to see how this new, allegedly forward-thinking take on the story pans out.