Peter Dinklage Rightfully Rips Disney a New One Over Live-Action ‘Snow White’
Disney’s plan to do a live-action remake of their classic animated film has Peter Dinklage cursing.
Peter Dinklage has been a loud voice for folks with achondroplasia and other forms of dwarfism for years. He’s used his platform to talk about the social conditions and problems dwarves face.
The actor has also made it a point not to take stereotypical roles based on his height, wanting to not perpetuate the fantasy dwarf myth and represent people in modern times and with a broader range.
He’s hilarious and talented. His work in entertainment has made a difference, but not enough for Disney to pay attention apparently. While on Marc Maron’s podcast to talk about his latest movie Dinklage spoke about Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White.
via Disney
Peter Dinklage Calls Disney Out
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on … 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.’ 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 fucking backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together, what the fuck are you doing, man? Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough. I don’t know which studio that is but they were so proud of it. All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I’m just like, what are you doing?”
Disney Responds
Disney has responded to the actor. A company rep told the Hollywood Reporter that…
“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.”
Hopefully, this means that the idea drenched in stereotypes will be dropped altogether or that the role of the seven dwarves will be modified. Snow White is an old fairy tale and the seven people the princess comes across haven’t been dwarves or miners in every telling.
In Italy, the story is of Maria and the Seven Thieves of no prescribed height that lived in a house. There are ways to do this that aren’t offensive and ableist.
Adding post-publication: an op-ed from actress Kiruna Stamell that breaks down the issue further and gives another perspective on why this is a problem.
“I am so careful about the roles I pick because I know that, if I get it wrong, there will be repercussions for some innocent person with dwarfism just minding their own business. I don’t want what I create as an artist to be used to bring a random person down in the middle of their day.
I had ‘Mini-Me’ yelled at me by strangers for years after Austin Powers came out. ‘Hi-ho, hi-ho,’ is regularly hummed or sung at me by passersby. I am filmed and photographed by strangers for who knows what on social media. Most insults are simply regurgitated rubbish that people have picked up from somewhere in the social repertoire of negative and dehumanizing media portrayals.”
