Disney Issues Response To Peter Dinklage's Snow White Criticism, Citing Consultations With Dwarfism Community
Perhaps the biggest news story yesterday was when former Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage unleashed a notable slam against The Walt Disney Company and their upcoming live-action remake of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The four-time Emmy-winning actor spoke about it on Marc Maron's WTF podcast, calling it "f-cking backwards" depictions of dwarfs. A new statement has now been released online (via The Hollywood Reporter) wherein a Disney spokesperson responds to Dinklage, noting that the film (which remains in pre-production) is "consulting with members of the dwarfism community" while working on the new version.
"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," an unnamed Disney spokesperson revealed to the trade in a statement. "We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period." The new film currently has The Amazing Spider-Man's Marc Webb attached to direct with West Side Story breakout Rachel Zegler set to play the title role and Gal Gadot playing the new version of the Evil Queen.
No release date is set for the movie as of yet but production is expected to begin this year.
"There's a lot of hypocrisy going on," Dinklage said about the new Snow White on WTF. "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 f-cking backwards 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 soap box? 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's original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered in 1937 and was Disney's first animated feature film.