Representation in Disney films

Last year, the producers of the movie Doctor Strange, which was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, decided to a replace the Tibetan male character “The Ancient One”, as portrayed in the original comic, with a Celtic female version of it. When Tilda Swinton was cast as The Ancient One, this controversial decision generated a wave of negative backlash against what was evidently “whitewashing”.

In response to this, director Scott Derrickson explained that adapting the original character as the comics portrayed him would be perpetuating the Asian Fu Manchu stereotype as well as drag the film into the controversial Tibetan sovereignty debate. Derrickson wanted to change the character to an Asian woman, but felt that an older Asian woman would invoke the Dragon Lady stereotype, while a younger Asian woman would be perceived as exploiting Asian fetish and "a fanboy's dream girl". He acknowledged the whitewashing and stereotyping of asians in film, saying that "Asians have been whitewashed and stereotyped in American cinema for over a century and people should be mad or nothing will change.”

However, he also took the opportunity to emphasize the “diversity” of the film's cast, in terms of both gender and ethnicity. Perhaps what I found most alarming was his comment, “What I did was the lesser of two evils, but it is still an evil."

It’s no secret that Disney has long sought to “diversify” its image, like Aladdin, Pocahontas, and most recently Moana and Zootopia. Most recently, Disney publicly promised that the upcoming live-action Aladdin remake will not feature “a white guy”. The Star Wars film Rogue One features a diverse cast, including stars including Donnie Yen, Riz Ahmed, and Diego Luna. However, it seems to me that Disney is now choosing which aspect of a person’s intersectional identity takes precedence over another.

Tilda Swinton is clearly no exception too. I read this article in which the columnist argues that Tilda Swinton "used feminism to downplay concerns about race". I think that Swinton’s reframing the discussion around gender ignores the salient issue of the underrepresentation of actors/actresses of asian descent.

After Swinton was cast, Derrickson felt obligated to find a way to include asian-american Benedict Wong in the film. But frankly, I feel that the director went to such great lengths to address potential controversies and scrutiny regarding The Ancient One, yet in the process created even more controversy. How ironic.

In my opinion, Disney’s efforts to remain apolitical, inclusive and diverse are backfiring. Perhaps Disney should just stop trying to “control” nature and perfect their image, and Disney would be much more well-received.