After years spent in development, Disney’s live-action Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remake is finally making steady progress forward, with West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler being cast as the title princess and production expected to begin soon. However, earlier this week, Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage called out Disney about the upcoming project, which resulted in the studio responding to his concerns soon after. Now comedian Brad Williams, who, like Dinklage, has achondroplasia (a type of dwarfism), has weighed in on the matter.
For those who missed out on Peter Dinklage’s comments, the actor said that despite Disney being “progressive” with its casting of Snow White, the studio is still choosing to adapt a classic fairytale that he sees as “fucking backwards” with its depictions of dwarfs. Disney then revealed that this remake is “taking a different approach with these seven characters,” and that there’s been consultation with “members of the dwarfism community.” Here’s what Brad Williams had to say about Disney’s forthcoming take on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when TMZ caught up with him:
They're touting the progressiveness, they're touting that they have a Latinx Snow White. Which is great, but we're still doing the dwarf thing, you know? So, he's right. But at the same time, I'm torn because it's like yes, it's mildly offensive. But at the same time, I kind of need the work. So, I'm kind of hoping for acting gigs. You know, that's why I'm a stand up comic. So I can get more work for myself and not have to worry about other people telling the story.
On the one hand, Brad Williams agrees with Peter Dinklage about it being somewhat regressive to bring Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to the big screen again with regards to the title seven men, even if a Latina actress has been cast as Snow White, a role often played by white actresses. But on the other hand, Williams acknowledged that this movie could be a way for him, along with other performing little people, to get a role in a major motion picture.
Thinking outside the box, Brad Williams also suggested a way Disney’s live-action Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could be progressive without causing issues with the dwarfism community, and it would require setting the Prince who shows up at the end to the sidelines. In the comedian’s words:
But yeah, I think there's ways to fix it. I think there's ways you can still do a progressive Snow White and not offend the dwarves. Like, make Snow White end up with one of the dwarves. How about that? I mean, she goes for a prince who made out with her while she was legally dead. I mean, that's kind of creepy, right?
Brad Williams added that all of the seven dwarves are “self made” as diamond miners, have a nice house and won’t hesitate to protect her, whereas the Prince radiates “Do you know who my father is?” energy. When the interviewer brought up how some people think Dinklage is “singlehandedly” taking away roles from seven little people because of his Snow White comments, Williams countered that Hollywood is doing that more by “not providing more roles” to little people, while Dinklage is “pretty much the only one working in Hollywood that doesn’t play stereotypical dwarf roles.”
Time will tell exactly how Disney’s live-action version of Show White and the Seven Dwarfs differs from the animated movie Disney released in 1937. That said, in addition to Rachel Zegler, the remake’s cast includes Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen and Andrew Burnap as an unidentified male lead who’s neither the Prince nor the Huntsman. The Amazing Spider-Man’s Marc Webb is directing the feature.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is just one of many Disney movies coming up on the live-action remakes/re-imaginings front. The next one on the slate is Pinocchio, which will hit Disney+ sometime in late 2022 (and not to be confused with Guillermo de Toro’s Pinocchio movie for Netflix), followed by The Little Mermaid coming out in theaters on May 26, 2023.
