Tilda Swinton has been receiving a lot of backlash since she was casted for the role of The Ancient One in Scott Derrickson’s “Doctor Strange”. Many fans accused Marvel of whitewashing the mystical character because in the original comics, The Ancient One is of Tibetan descent.
In an interview with OUT magazine, the Anglo-Scottish-Australian actress, who won an Oscar for her portrayal in “Michael Clayton” (2007), has finally stepped up to address the controversy.
“There is little for me to add except to say that anyone speaking up for a greater accuracy in the representation of the diversity of the world we live in has me right beside them. As someone who has worked from the beginning as an artist within a queer aesthetic, the urgency of that voice is always going to be welcome,” she told the publication.
Though the film’s co-writer C. Robert Cargill explained in a video interview on YouTube that the casting decision was made to avoid political conflict with the Chinese government because of the complicated issue between Tibet and China, Swinton thought that Marvel’s casting choice is a “positively diverse” one.
She added, “At the same time, the film Marvel has made—in which they created a part for which I was not bad casting, in actual fact—is a departure from the source material in more ways than one. Ironically, their casting is positively diverse in this case: The Ancient One in this film was never written as the bearded old Tibetan man portrayed in the comics.”
Whitewashing or not, Swinton is an extremely talented actress and we are pretty excited to see her performance in the upcoming “Doctor Strange”, which is slated for release on 4th November.
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Source: E! Online.
