Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage recently slammed Disney for
its upcoming live action remake of Snow White.
Because they are still using dwarfs in the storyline and
since it's live action, they're gonna use actual people.
And he doesn't like the fact that they're being portrayed that way.
Okay, so I'm gonna give you his quote, but
he's getting pushback from people in his own community on this.
And Tucker Carlson has decided to exploit that situation.
>> Great. >> Before we get
to the Tucker Carlson video, here's what Dinklage had to say.
Literally, no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken
aback when they were very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White.
But you're still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Take a step back and look at what you're doing here.
It makes no sense to me, your progressives in one way, but then you're still
making that f backwards story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together?
What the f are you doing man?
Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox?
I guess I'm not loud enough.
So I think that's a legitimate concern, right?
And you also have to keep in mind that Peter Dinklage in his role on Game of
Thrones, I mean that was really a unique role because it was someone who was
portrayed as incredibly intelligent, smart, clever, strong, brave.
And I love that character in that show.
So I see what he's saying.
However there are others who have a different perspective here,
namely Dylan Postl who's also known as Hornswoggle.
He's a WWE guy, and here's what he had to say about this
backlash towards Snow White on Tucker Carlson show.
>> My biggest thing is he wants to be progressive and
it's all about progression and I support that completely.
But the issue is him being progressive is eliminating seven
potential dream jobs from the dwarf acting community.
And that's my issue here is he's saying he wants to move forward and
do good for the community, these are dream jobs.
I got hired by WWE.
WWE was my dream job since I was four years old.
Since I was four years old, all I wanted to be was a WWE superstar.
And in any other circumstance, it wouldn't have been able to be done by me.
I'm not 6ft, I'm not 250 pounds, but they were looking for
a person like me, a little person to fill this role.
>> And I think that's a legitimate perspective as well, right?
There aren't a lot of roles for, by the way, I'm gonna be honest with you guys,
I'm gonna be super authentic and vulnerable here.
I don't know if it's even okay to say dwarf, is that okay?
I don't know. >> So-
>> I don't want this to come back to bite
me in the ass like ten years later.
>> That's exactly what I was gonna say.
So look, I had the same question and the articles clearly refer to dwarfs,
will they later change the rules?
Very likely.
Will they then have video compilations of us saying the word and
hold us guilty in hindsight?
>> Yeah. >> Of course they will.
And so am I referring to the left?
Yes, I am.
Okay, and so it's an insane standard, it makes no sense.
But since right now as things stand, everybody is using the word dwarf,
I guess we will too.
So you can hold this guilty later and invent a time machine, so
we can fix it as well.
Anyways, to the heart of the story.
Look, both sides have good points.
I don't know if there's a way to fix it, but first,
let me give credit to to Dinklage.
And I don't mean for his career, his career has been amazing and has done so
much for how people view, again, I don't know if it's little people or
dwarfs, I guess we'll stick with dwarfs.
And so, but I mean in this case, look, the story of Snow White is,
there's seven dwarfs living in a cave, why?
Cuz they're freaks, they're outcasts and they had to go live in a cave.
>> Okay. >> They're ostracized.
>> Pause, I think we do need to adjudicate this.
We need to go to the Supreme Court, the TYT Supreme Court.
[SOUND] >> Conservatives
are still complaining about how we pack the court with nothing but progressives.
>> Yeah. >> It's the only Supreme Court in the land
that is similar.
>> Yes.
>> Anyways, but we often have disagreements and
it's interesting conversations.
So in this case, the original story is problematic,
I don't think that Dinklage is wrong in any way about that.
Now, on the other hand, Hornswoggle or whatever.
I stopped watching WWE in a long time.
>> Hornswoggle, please get it right.
Okay Bigglesworth or whatever right?
I don't know the dude, I'm not trying to make fun of who he is,
I'm making fun of the name, okay?
He is not wrong, that man, those would have been incredible acting parts right?
So we don't always have to live in a binary world where dude right is right,
and the left is right, or this position is right, or that position is right.
It's possible they're both right in some ways and wrong in some ways.
Okay, yes, but where would I come out on?
If I'm Disney I know it feels like a cop out but it isn't.
I would try to recreate the story, I would try to keep the dwarves but
make it the storyline different enough that it
it feels like it's empowering rather than ostracizing, right?
>> Yeah.
>> And by the way then the right wing will be mad, my God,
they change the story, why don't we hate the dwarves anymore?
And then we're supposed to pretend that they're not really human and
they're either grumpy or happy or sleepy, right, cuz they're so weird and
different and they'll hate it, that Disney's changed the story.
They'll hate it that it's a Latina actress doing Snow White.
And I know already the hateful things that Laura Ingraham and
Tucker Carlson are gonna say.
So there is a way to make it right, but
I don't know that they're gonna go in that direction.
>> Okay, so I have a lot of thoughts on this, number one, the film isn't out yet,
so we don't know how the seven dwarfs will be presented.
However, look, I'm sure my recollection is probably wrong.
I never came away from watching Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs thinking who are those freaks, right?
They were helpful, and loving, and they were caretakers.
In my mind and I was a child when I watched Snow White, right,
they were lovely [LAUGH].
>> No, that's true, but I wanna add something really important to that
because all this stuff affects us in ways that we don't even realize,
it's kind of like programming for our brains.
And so yeah, of course you're right about that, I of course felt the same way and
I had a couple of the dwarves as like that what a girlfriend had given me, right?
Sleepy, grumpy and happy, the three things that I am, okay.
>> Do they help save her?
>> Yeah, but what it did when as a kid, I didn't even think about
it until I was an adult is dwarves are different, right?
>> Okay.
>> And so they're like little weird different creatures that live in the woods
and they're not like the rest of us, right?
>> I see what you're saying, okay.
>> Yeah, and it just in grains that in you and you don't even realize it.
As a kid,
I think I have to confess that I wasn't even sure they were human in the story.
Do you see what I'm saying?
>> Yeah, I guess I do see what you're saying and
I think it's interpreted in different ways by different people.
I definitely saw them as human.
And I didn't see them as weird or,- >> Different.
>> But again, it's just different, yeah.
But then that's the other thing, that's another conundrum that you run into with
these issues because communities do want to be identified as different,
not as weird or outcast, but like, hey, don't erase my identity, right?
So it's a lot more difficult I think.
And there is no one person who speaks for an entire community either, right,
which makes it even more complicated,
which is why I think on both sides here there are legitimate concerns.
Disney for its part by the way, responded to Dinklage with this,
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.
We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy
development period.
So we'll see how that plays out.
But one other caveat to all of this is going back to Hornswoggle
the way he's portrayed in the WWE as you can imagine,
not very positive for dwarfs, just not.
He dresses up as a leprechaun.
For instance, one of Hornswoggle earliest angles
in the WWE was him portraying Vince McMahon.
>> Vince McMahon, that's the owner WWE.
>> Basically presenting himself as his illegitimate son and
involved him in biting his bare naked butt, I'm not gonna read that.
>> No, you know wrestling.
>> Yeah, it's bad stuff, yeah.
>> I got it, but wrestling does that with a lot of characters and and so look,
there's legitimate complaints about it.
Okay, look, let's take it one at a time.
In terms of how dwarves are portrayed again, the answer is both, right?
So they've been portrayed in horrible ways in movies and
other forms of entertainment.
Look in Wolf of Wall Street,
they show you where they get thrown at a dartboard by bankers.
Did that actually happen?
I don't know about that particular story, but did things like that happen?
All the time.
In the 80s, and 90s, and before, making fun of dwarves and having dwarves
at a party so you can make fun of them was super common and it was revolting.
Even back when I was a Republican, I'd be like, why are we doing this?
I didn't participate at all, but I would see that.
I remember one party in particular and going, what the f?
This is insane. >> Yeah.
>> What part of this is funny, right?
At the same time, I don't wanna take away Dylan Postl job as Hornswoggle, right?
And I'm not judging him.
He's got to do whatever he's gotta do, right?
>> Right. >> And he loves doing it.
And I'm not hating on the guy who played the Iron Sheik back in the day,
back when it was WWF.
And was that a stereotypical character that was a terrible depiction of
Persians and Muslims?
Of course it was, right?
And there was Tiger Chung Lee, and he wasn't a great depiction either and
that's a fairly benign one, right?
And we can go on and on.
So don't bother going back into the past and canceling things, right?
What's done is done, just try to make the best movie you can.
Provide opportunities where you can, and tell a new story and
don't worry about the right wing who's gonna complain?
No, we should keep all the stories bad, right?
Like Sixteen Candles, the character Long Duk Dong, it's awfully racist, right?
And back then everybody thought it was perfectly normal,
that's why they may put it in a movie and everybody laughed etc., right?
It was against Asians.
Now you're watching you're like my God, Jesus Christ, what are they doing, right?
Should we just remake it as it was?
No, of course it's terrible, it's offensive.
You can remake it and make it better and new.
So overall, that's my answer.