Peter Dinklage has some thoughts about hypocrisy among Hollywood progressives.
The “Game of Thrones” star was discussing wokeness in the context of comedy on Monday’s edition of the “WTF With Marc Maron” podcast when the conversation turned to confused thinking in the entertainment industry.
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on, I gotta say, from being somebody who’s a little bit unique,” Dinklage said, noting that he had had a “front row seat” to a lot of it.
As a case in point, he brought up Disney’s upcoming remake of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” which features “West Side Story” star Rachel Zegler in the “skin white as snow” lead role. Zegler, who is of Colombian and Polish descent, had to fend off a few haters when her casting was announced in June.
Dinklage’s concern had to do not with her casting, but with the contradictory thinking behind the entire effort.
“I was a little taken aback by — they were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ Take a step back and see what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me. Because you’re progressive in one way and you’re still making that f— backward story about seven dwarfs who live in a cave.”
Per the original story, the dwarfs actually live in a cottage in the woods, as they also did in Disney’s 1937 animated classic.
Dinklage took on a light tone as he went on, saying in an accent, “Have I done nothing to advance the cause, from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough.”
“I don’t know what studio that was,” he added, “but they were so proud of that. And all love and respect to the actress and the people who thought they were doing the right thing, but … what are you doing?”
Disney had no immediate comment Tuesday when contacted by the Los Angeles Times.
Dinklage, who is white, also mentioned that people complained about him being cast as actor Herve Villechaize, who was often incorrectly perceived to be Filipino, for HBO’s “My Dinner With Herve.”
“There was a lot of early backlash: ‘How dare he play a Filipino?’ ” Dinklage said. “They were so liberal-minded — and I am as liberal as anybody — but they were so convinced, because of how he looked, Herve, that he was Filipino, which is … if that’s not racism … He’s a Frenchman, and his physical condition made him look very cherubic.”
