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Dwarf actors have reacted furiously to Disney canceling the seven dwarves from its Snow White remake after Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage called them offensive, saying the decision robs them of work and the chance to fulfil what for some is a dream role.
Speaking to DailyMail.com after Disney’s decision to ‘rethink’ the characters, multiple actors and agents said there are plenty who would have happily accepted the jobs that Dinklage – a Golden Globe winner who was paid $1.2million per episode of Game of Thrones – said were ‘backwards’.
The actors say Dinklage is not the authority on what the community as a whole finds offensive and that in canceling the roles, Disney has done far more damage to them than good.
Some are now begging Disney to bring the parts back and are begging for the chance to audition for them.
‘It makes me so sick to my stomach to think that there are seven roles for dwarfs that can’t get normal acting roles, or very few and far between roles, and now they are gone because of this guy.
‘Peter Dinklage is the biggest dwarf actor probably of all time but it doesn’t make him king dwarf,’ Dylan Postl, who played Hornswoggle the leprechaun in WWE for 10 years and has also acted in The Muppets, told DailyMail.com.
‘When he was cast as a little person role in Lord of the Rings or in a Game of Thrones or in Elf or this that or the other thing… those checks cashed just fine.
‘He had no issue then. But now he wants to be progressive? Come on man.’
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Speaking to DailyMail.com, Dylan Postl said Dinklage had no issue playing roles in Game of Thrones – where he was paid $1.2million per episode in his role as Tyrion Lannister – but now has decided to become progressive. He said it harms other actors’ opportunities
Dylan Postl was Hornswoggle the leprechaun in WWE for 10 years. He slammed Dinklage as ‘selfish’, ‘stupid’ and ‘dumb’ for calling the roles backwards
Disney is taking a ‘different approach’ with the characters originally referred to as the ‘seven dwarfs’ in its remake of its classic film Snow White in an effort to ‘avoid reinforcing stereotypes’
‘I don’t know if Peter Dinklage is still acting or if he is done now but I don’t know… it’s pretty selfish. People came before him. If it is his mindset that he wants to be the only one then you gotta grow up man.’
‘It’s not helping our community it’s taking jobs away from our community that are very few and far between as it is,’ he said.
‘If a dwarf just dreams of being an actor and in a Disney film then this role is made for them. You’re taking these roles of not just one but seven little people away because. you feel like we have to make progression?
‘It’s so stupid, it’s just dumb. You’re doing worse for the community than better.’
Postl, 35, says he was able to live out his ‘dream’ for 10 years with WWE by playing a leprechaun. He is shown, right, with his son. They live in Wisconsin
‘The story is now “Snow White and the Seven Normal Sized People.” It’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”
‘Also, they all each have their own individual characteristics, they look after Snow White, they’re the heroes. This is a good thing!’
Postl said he would jump at the chance to be involved in a big-budget Disney film.
‘To be in a remake of one of the biggest fairytales, biggest Disney stories of all time, would be enormous.
‘I know me and six other little people who would love this role. Disney – call me. This would be a dream role for me. I am begging for one.’
Jeff Brooks is a 62-year-old actor who lives in Dallas. He has been working as a dwarf actor since 1979, when he was cast as a winking Christmas elf in a holiday commercial for Joske’s. He played the yellow dinosaur on The Barney Show on PBS from 1994 to 2001.
He told DailyMail.com that Snow White and the Seven Dwarves was not an offensive story, and that he – like Postl – would have jumped at the role.
‘My first role was Josh the Gnome, he was dressed very much like a garden gnome. Then various other things mostly seasonal work. I’d play elves at Christmas, leprechauns at St. Patrick’s Day, a variety of characters at Halloween.’
He said in the duration of his 30-year career, he has rarely been offended by the roles he has been offered.
Snow White, he said, depicts dwarfs in a historically accurate way.
‘Dwarfs did work in the mines. They did jobs that were easier to complete by people who are small. They worked in mines, manufacturing, they built planes, cars – all kinds of things that involved a cramped space.
Jeff Brooks is a 62-year-old actor based in Dallas. He got his start in commercials, often playing elves at Christmas, and he also played the yellow dinosaur in The Barney Show. He told DailyMail.com there are too few roles for dwarf actors as it is – and that Dinklage just shrank the opportunities even more, whether he meant to or not
Katrina Kemp, who has acted in GLOW on Netflix, said the decision by Disney to do-away with the roles entirely cancels out an opportunity for actors with dwarfism
DISNEY’S AWOKENING
Disney in 2020 began slapping racism warnings on some of its most iconic movies, including Peter Pan and The Jungle Book, to alert viewers to sensitive scenes.
The media conglomerate believes some of its older cartoons contain outdated racial or ethnic stereotypes, and now opens some films with a disclaimer.
It reads: ‘This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures.’
Movies with warning include the 1970 musical comedy The Aristocats, 1955 canine love story Lady and the Tramp and 1960 adventure Swiss Family Robinson.
In relation to The Aristocats, Disney warns viewers about a scene where one cat, voiced by a white actor, yells out stereotypical Chinese ‘words’ while playing the piano with chopsticks.
Peter Pan viewers are warned that Native Americans Indians are referred to as ‘redskins’. Disney says scenes in which Peter and The Lost Boys dance in native American headdresses are a ‘form of mockery and appropriation of Native peoples’ culture and imagery.’
The Jungle Book has also been highlighted, namely for its depiction of the ape King Louie, which was accused of perpetuating a stereotype of African Americans.
Elsewhere 1941 release Dumbo comes under fire for its references to racist segregationist laws in the deep south, as well as its use of affected African-American voices.
The lead crow in the film is also called Jim Crow – a reference to the segregation laws in late 19th and early 20th Century America.
Lady And The Tramp has been placed on the list due to its perceived stereotyping of Asians courtesy of Siamese cats Si and Am, while a dog pound features canines with largely ethnic names and accents
Earlier this week, Disneyland Paris announced that Minnie Mouse had had a costume re-design.
Now, she will wear an eco-friendly polka dot pantsuit drawn up by Stella McCartney
Dinklage claimed in his interview that the story perpetuates a story of the dwarves living in caves which is inaccurate.
‘In the movie they had their own house. They had a house and they worked in the mines,’ he said.
Brooks said it was not offensive to cast little people in the roles or even keep the characters in the film because dwarfs are real.
‘Dwarf is a medical term. The condition I have is achondroplasia dwarfism. That is a fact. I am a dwarf.
‘I am hoping they cast Little People and give them the work… Peter Dinklage may be hurting the chance of some dwarf actors here.
‘And it scares me that Disney would change a decision that big over the comment of one actor. They have been too quick here.’
Katrina Kemp, a 31-year-old actor who is based in Los Angeles, said there would have been actors willing to accept the roles that Disney scrapped.
She questioned whether or not Disney ever intended to cast dwarf actors in the roles, if they planned to use CGI instead – which she said would have been even more damaging.
‘It’s a missed opportunity to make a movie with seven little people where they actually have intended characters.
‘There will have been people who gladly would have taken those roles. Are they people gunning for a SAG award? No. Peter has the privilege not to [take the roles. The people who are freaking out about this do not.’
She said she does not pin the blame on Dinklage, and said she didn’t believe he ever intended to take work from people.
But she said it was a failure by Disney to rely on his voice alone.
‘Going to Dinklage for this is like going to Kim Kardashian for law firm advice. He is on another level, another plain of success completely.
‘There are other dwarfism players who are just trying to use the inspiration that he has put out there,’ she said.
‘You cant fix it by saying “oh we won’t put any little people in it at all.”
Lauren Brooks, who has represented dwarf actors through her Texas-based talent agency B3 for 15 years, told DailyMail.com on Thursday: ‘He is one guy out of millions of people with dwarfism.
‘They are all wanting to be him. If he doesn’t want the competition then that is pretty selfish for him to deny other people the right to work.’
‘Making the 12 dwarves in Snow White now normal sized people is like taking the cast of Roots and making them white.
‘I do not agree with it. My guys and women who happen to suffer dwarfism have to use what god gave them, you know, “shake what your mama gave you.”
‘To have the ability to work requires a lot of inner strength and to take those jobs away from them is like taking the lollipop kids out of The Wizard of Oz. You just don’t do it.
‘Disney is so litigious, they’ll sue people for using any of theirs and here they are changing a Brothers Grimm story because they think it will be more politically correct… it should be as it was written.
‘There really are not that many roles written for dwarf people. Back in the fifties, they were revered. Then over the years, for some reason, people started to think it was offensive for them to get work. If they are OK with it then at least they can make their handicap something positive.’
She added that the characters of the seven dwarves in Snow White are also positive, varied roles.
‘[Dwarf] actors normally never get the good roles. They are usually scary or negative. Disney has not commented on whether or not it had cast any actors for the roles.
In a statement after Dinklage spoke out, Disney said: ‘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’.
Now it is unclear if the roles will be written out of the story altogether.
Neither Disney nor representatives for Peter Dinklage responded to requests for comment.
Source: dailymail
