"Doctor Strange's" Swinton Addresses Whitewashing Criticism

[CBR News]

Tilda Swinton, who plays the Ancient One in the Marvel movie, says she "wasn't asked to play an Asian character."


Full article here.

[MindofShadow]

She just looks, lives, and acts like a stereotypical monk character...

[Sam Robards, Comic Fan]

It seems like she's passing the buck a little bit by saying that SHE didn't whitewash the character: the scriptwriters did. While she's right in that regard, that doesn't really address the problem...

In terms of her performance, I'm sure she'll do fine. I just wish they could have given the role to an Asian woman. I don't know of any Tibetan actresses, but would it have been so hard to get someone like Michelle Yeoh?

[AcesX1X]

"i'm pretty confident we didn't whitewash, pay your money to us just to be sure"

[Doctor Know]

She just looks, lives, and acts like a stereotypical monk character...

Stereotype isn't the right word. Archetype is a better term to use.

But yeah, idk what she's talking about given everything we saw in the trailer.

People complained about Iron Fist (a white character) being played by a white actor, and there is next to no traction on Tilda Swinton playing an Asian character for Dr. Strange.

[Sighphi]

Of course, they didnt sell her the part by saying, "You are actually playing a tibetan wizard that was a dude." They told her what the character was for this film which is, of course, not a tibetan wizard thats a dude.

Ancient One's early comic appearances were "stereotypical" and "don't hold up to what would work today."

One of the most powerful wizards on this realm protecting it from incursions from outside dimensions is stereotypical?

We all know why this is happening.

China and Tibet have been beefing for years so you will not have a Tibetan dude being the top guy in a movie. Just like you didnt have Mandarin, a half English dude, that hates the government and wants it overthrown. Because you are not going to question the Chinese government. They just kidnapped people from a book store for questioning it. You are not going to put a risk millions of dollars.

[Tofali]

Why do i get a feeling like there is more than one Ancient One in the movie? Maybe the others are in astral form?

[jbwbubba]

So when Elba plays Heimdall or Fury becomes Sam Jackson ( I know Ultimates) its all diversity is great, flip the script and everyone loses their minds

[Sighphi]

Why do i get a feeling like there is more than one Ancient One in the movie? Maybe the others are in astral form?

AO is going to be Dread Dormammu tricking Strange to let him open up this plane.

[davewire]

So when Elba plays Heimdall or Fury becomes Sam Jackson ( I know Ultimates) its all diversity is great, flip the script and everyone loses their minds

Exactly. I don't see anyone getting angry that Mordo is black.

[Lot 49]

Of course, they didnt sell her the part by saying, "You are actually playing a tibetan wizard that was a dude." They told her what the character was for this film which is, of course, not a tibetan wizard thats a dude.



One of the most powerful wizards on this realm protecting it from incursions from outside dimensions is stereo.

I think this observation might be a little obtuse. That was not the stereotypical portion of the portrayal...

[Time Like Lightning]

Exactly. I don't see anyone getting angry that Mordo is black.

So when Elba plays Heimdall or Fury becomes Sam Jackson ( I know Ultimates) its all diversity is great, flip the script and everyone loses their minds

It's less about the abstract concept of changing a character's race and more about which direction that's happening in-- it's a numbers game. How many white characters are there v. how many East Asian ones, black ones, etc.? So when a white character is played by an actor of color it's increasing representation of groups with low visibility in films and the MCU especially, whereas if the opposite occurs, an opportunity for more diverse roles is being taken away. In this case specifically, it's notoriously difficult for Asian actors to find big, leading roles in Hollywood.

[CliffHanger2]

So when Elba plays Heimdall or Fury becomes Sam Jackson ( I know Ultimates) its all diversity is great, flip the script and everyone loses their minds

People were mad about that too and stuff like that happens a lot LESS than the Tilda Swinton thing.

[Iron Fist]

So when Elba plays Heimdall or Fury becomes Sam Jackson ( I know Ultimates) its all diversity is great, flip the script and everyone loses their minds

Because adding more diversity is never a bad thing, but removing a character who is a person of colour to put in another white person is white washing.

Tilda is hinting this may be an exception though, but don't know until we see the movie.

[gurkle]

I think studios believe, and they're probably not wrong, that they will get less criticism for "whitewashing" than stereotyping. A stereotypical non-white character will get a lot more criticism than replacing that character with a white person, even though the latter is probably worse (if characters are immune from stereotyping, you can't include them in a movie like a comedy or a superhero film where everybody's a stereotype).

I'm not defending Disney's choices here; I just think realistically if they had an Asian guy playing the stereotypical "mystic" part the criticism would really blow up, even though having an ethnic stereotype is probably better than whitewashing (and not having a stereotype is impossible with this material).

As for actors being asked about these things, I would advise them to just lie and say they haven't heard about the controversy.