WASHINGTON — Disney is responding to recent criticism by Peter Dinklage about the company's plans for a live-action remake of "Snow White."
Dinklage, who has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia, raised concerns about the film on Marc Maron's podcast. He said that while he lauded Disney for selecting Latina actress Rachel Zegler to portray Snow White, he felt the current direction of the film would reinforce stereotypes from the 1937 animated classic.
"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," Dinklage told Maron. "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 [expletive] backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together," Dinklage said.
"Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough," he described.
Following the "Game of Thrones" actor's criticism, Disney said it has already been consulting with "members of the dwarfism community" on the project.
"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," a Disney spokesperson first told Variety Magazine. "We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”
Disney did not provide specifics about what this new approach will look like.
Comedian Brad Williams told Daily Blast Live he wasn't necessarily offended by the original "Snow White," but felt it set the wrong tone.
"What Dinklage said is essentially true, I do agree with him that the original story was problematic, it may not have intended to be, but because little people don't have a lot of representation in the media and this was kind of the first, that kind of set the stage and it kind of set the stereotypes for all dwarves," Williams explained. "What he said was essentially true, but I also don't want to take work away from little people that get jobs because there's not that many."