Disney has defended its upcoming live-action adaptation of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs after actor Peter Dinklage called out the film studio for being hypocritical.
The Game Of Thrones star, who has a form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, said it “made no sense” for the production to go ahead, describing it as “a fucking backwards story”, during an appearance on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast.
Following his comments, Disney issued a statement to The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday.
“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 said.
“We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”
The remake follows the huge box office success of live adaptations of other Disney classics including Beauty And The Beast and The Lion King.
Disney recently announced that West Side Story breakout star Rachel Zegler would be starring in the Snow White remake. She will play the princess alongside Gal Gadot’s Evil Queen.
Peter accused Disney of “hypocrisy” for pushing for a racially diverse cast but reverting to harmful stereotypes.
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy going on I’ve got to say,” he said.
“No offence to anything but I was a little taken aback by [the fact] 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 Dwarves.
“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 I’m just like, ‘what are you doing?’.”
He continued: “Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me.
“You can be progressive in one way but you’re still making that fucking backwards story of the seven dwarves living in the cave.
“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”.
Peter can currently be seen on the big screen as the lead in the musical romance film Cyrano, alongside Haley Bennett and Kelvin Harrison Jr.