Peter Dinklage, star of the musical Cyrano, has called out Disney’s “hypocrisy” in its progressive approach to the live-action adaptation of the 1937 animated movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarves – which is currently in development, starring Rachel Zegler, Gal Gadot and Andrew Burnap.
During an interview with comedian Marc Maron on the WTF podcast, the actor commented that despite casting Latin star Zegler as the titular princess, the choice to adapt a “backwards” story was still eyebrow-raising. “Well, you know, it’s really progressive to cast a — literally no offence to anybody, but I was a little taken aback by [how] they were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White,” Dinklage explained. “But you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there.”
“It makes no sense to me because you’re progressive in one way, and then you’re still making that fucking backward story of seven dwarves living in a cave,” the actor continued. “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.”
This isn’t the first time Dinklage has spoken out about the portrayal of Dwarves in media. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly in 2018, the actor candidly spoke about how harmful tropes still exist in society today.
“Not to get too political about it, but it’s a stereotype that still exists,” Dinklage said. “Dwarf tossing still exists. There are still people of my size dressing up as elves at Christmas time. And if everybody continues to do that, then it won’t stop. But my daughter doesn’t think I’m a mythical creature. Unicorns don’t exist, but I do. It’s tricky, what we put out there, to perpetuate for future generations.”
On the topic of the new Snow White adaptation, the actor did go on to clarify that he respects Zegler immensely as well as the good intentions of the studio for attempting to be progressive with its family movies, saying: “if you tell the story of ‘Snow White’ with the most fucked-up, cool, progressive spin on it — let’s do it! All in.”
You can next see Dinklage in Cyrano, which drops in UK theatres on February 25, 2022.