Never thought about it in that light – I always thought of Snow White’s “Dwarfs” as mythological creatures, rather than the achronodoplasia-afflicted, just as Tolkien’s “Dwarves” were clearly mythological. Did anyone protest about this with the Peter Jackson movies?
In any event, mythological or no, I think Dinklage has a point – plenty of people don’t see the difference between mythical beings and real people with an unfortunate condition. Maybe we should take up Tolkien’s suggestion and call the mythical creatures “dwerros” or “khazad”.
Making truckloads of money, that’s what they are doing.
Seriously, I t’s an interesting problem- is the portrayal of dwarves from folklore and mythology problematic because real people have the same physical appearance as the fictional ones, or can the two be separated? I have no idea.
Dinklage has a long history of challenging how Hollywood uses little people actors. One of his earliest roles (Living in Oblivion) was as an actor with dwarfism who’s cast in a dream sequence. His outburst to the director is classic:
“Have you ever had a dream with a dwarf in it? Do you know anyone who’s had a dream with a dwarf in it? No! I don’t even have dreams with dwarves in them. The only place I’ve seen dwarves in dreams is in stupid movies like this! “Oh make it weird, put a dwarf in it!”. Everyone will go “Woah, this must be a fuckin’ dream, there’s a fuckin’ dwarf in it!”. Well I’m sick of it! You can take this dream sequence and stick it up your ass!”
They are seen as comic relief, mostly. And not as real people.
Tolkien gets some crap for using some stereotypes of Jews to inform his dwarfs, but i think they are a lot less problematic than the dwarfs in snow white.
I think I’m having trouble understanding Dinklage’s precise point. Is it that the fantastical creature called the “dwarf” is inherently offensive, or is it strictly a linguistic issue? Is it offensive because they’re living in a cave, because they share a name with a real condition, because they exist at all, or because of the way they’re portrayed?
What’s better? Peter Jackson using non-dwarf actors and then turning them into fantasy dwarves with movie magic, or the Witcher series using dwarfish actors but also making them totally badass?
It’s unlikely in the extreme that the fantasy creature will be excised from the genre - Tolkien solidified them as one of the ‘big three’ races next to elves and humans.
From my privileged position I’ve put very little thought into this. I do remember thinking that Dinklage’s casting in X-Men was interesting because it was one of the only times I’ve seen a dwarf cast in a role that had absolutely nothing to do with being a dwarf and, perhaps more importantly, didn’t even acknowledge that the actor was one. I’m sure Dinklage would like to see more opportunities like that, and I agree, but I’m unclear about how he (or the greater dwarf community) feels about the fantasy race.
I had never heard this, and did some brief Googling before finishing this post. I immediately turned up some utterly fascinating material about Tolkien’s conscious parallels between Jews and dwarves. I’d never in a million years have put together, for instance, that he patterned his dwarvish language after Semitic language structures. Tolkien is of course famous for telling the Nazis to fuck right off when they asked him for proof of his non-Jewish status, so I’m willing to chalk it up to the typical nerdy/scholarly thought processes that are at the heart of all of his inspiration. Either way, you’ve given me some neat stuff to read about today. [/tangent]
I think the stereotypes of Jews were so pervasive in his era that he was bound to be affected. He was clearly way ahead of the curve on the issue, and i have no problems at all with professor Tolkien.
Given that the movie hasn’t started filming yet, I’m guessing he hasn’t seen it.
And note that when Disney did a live-action remake of Dumbo, they left out the crows, which in the original animated movie were problematic. But how do you leave out the dwarves in this case, as they’re central to the story? They might, for example, make them seven men who aren’t dwarves.
I’m honestly trying to reconcile this with Dinklage playing Eitri, King of the Dwarves who created weapons for the Aesir in “Avengers: Infinity War”. Was it OK because he was a 10 ft tall dwarf, or because those were clearly mythological/fantasy dwarves?
Og; it’s sooooo much better to hear it from Dinklage:
What makes the scene is that the director’s (Buscemi) crazy, ditzy mother then announces that she’ll do it, does the scene perfectly just dressed as she is, and they keep the take as sufficiently bizarre and surreal.
I was actually just talking about Peter Dinklage this weekend. We see examples of able-bodied people being cast in disabled roles, but the only example I could think of of a disabled person being cast in an able-bodied role is him. (Dwarfism is a recognized condition in the Americans with Disabilities Act.)
I see the point he’s making, though I’m also struggling to explain it. If a dwarf is never cast as a person in their own right, only an oompa loompa or a munchkin or one of the seven dwarfs, you’re not treating dwarves with same dignity and respect that any human being ought to be afforded. (Dinklage does get some more dignified roles, and I can remember another prize-winning actress in a horror movie who had dwarfism, but when it comes to movie roles and dwarves, I think the most famous ones are the ones that typecast dwarves in rather demeaning roles.)
I’ve had one dream (that I remember) with dwarves in it, probably during the late 1970’s. The dwarves were also deadly frikkin’ ninjas who were trying to kill me, and I was trapped on Gilligan’s Island. All the regular islanders (Gilligan, Skipper, etc.) were werewolves who were also trying to kill me. Dreams!
If you swap out the term dwarf for some similar mythological/fantasy term like dverge or dwerro, you may get into the issue of Norse mythology using Dverge and Svartalf synonymously as terms for a race of dark little people. Some fantasy RPG lines are working to undo the dark=evil theme, so that just being a dark elf or an orc (fantasy races generally portrayed as having black skin) doesn’t automatically mean you are a bad guy, uncivilized, or worth less than a “human” in the game. Is Khazad an entirely made-up Tolkienism that would have no linguistic roots with potentially discriminatory overtones?
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