Tilda Swinton Isn’t Doing Yellowface In “Doctor Strange,” So Says Tilda Swinton
When Tilda Swinton, the alien refugee who came to this planet on a falling star, was cast as The Ancient One in the Doctor Strange movie starring The Alien Lizard King, many threw balls of shit-filled rage at the filmmakers for whitewashing a Tibetan character. The Ancient One is a Tibetan man in the comic books. I don’t think people thought that Tilda was going to pull some Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s fuckery by playing The Ancient One as a Tibetan man. People were pissed because there’s not many roles for Asians in big-budget Hollywood movies and felt like they should’ve cast an Asian actor instead of a white actress who has no problem getting roles. But everyone can put down their pitchforks, because Tilda Swinton has broken it down for us and cleared everything up.
During a screening in NYC for her movie A Bigger Splash (which sadly isn’t a sequel to Splash where Tilda plays Daryl Hannah’s friend, a talking trout), she told The Hollywood Reporter that she is not playing an Asian character. Repeat, Tilda is not playing an Asian character. An Asian character, Tilda does not play!
“Well, it’s not actually an Asian character — that’s what I need to tell you about it. I wasn’t asked to play an Asian character, you can be very well assured of that. You just have to wait and see, because it’s not an Asian character.”
Den of Geek also asked Tilda about the whitewashing controversy and she spit out the same line she spit out to The Hollywood Reporter. Tilda is not playing an Asian character!
“The script that I was presented with did not feature an Asian man for me to play, so that was never a question when I was being asked to do it. It all will be revealed when you see the film, I think. There are very great reasons for us to feel very settled and confident with the decisions that were made.”
I’m surprised that Tilda doesn’t have the words “I AM NOT AN ASIAN CHARACTER” written on her forehead in the Doctor Strange trailer.
It’s been reported that Marvel and Disney whitewashed The Ancient One and took out all traces of Tibet from the movie because of $$$$ (duh). China is a gigantic movie market (and will probably dethrone the US very soon) and the country may have banned Doctor Strange if Tibet was mentioned it. You know, because of the whole Tibet situation. Doctor Strange’s producer Kevin Feige said that the title character doesn’t go to Tibet. He just goes somewhere in the “east.”
It’s obvious that Tilda Swinton doesn’t play The Ancient One as a Tibetan man. If the character was an Asian man in the movie, they wouldn’t have cast Tilda. They would’ve cast Emma Stone, of course. Besides, judging by Tilda’s look in the movie, I don’t even think she’s human. That’s probably what she meant by “all will be revealed.” We’ll probably find out that Gollum didn’t die in The Return of the King. Gollum faked his death, left Middle-earth and moved to a country called SomewhereInTheEast Land where he got tall by taking hormones and spent his time teaching magic to wannabe wizards. That’s what she means! I was waiting for Disney to get even more money by doing a Marvel/Narnia crossover.
And here’s Tilda last night wearing a coat made from coffee filters and the curtain in your grandma’s “nice living room.”
Pics: Splash