Peter Dinklage is calling out Disney studios for filming a live-action remake of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" — and Disney is responding.
On Monday's episode of the "WTF with Marc Maron" podcast, the former "Game of Thrones" star, 52, said despite Disney's "progressive" idea to cast "West Side Story" star Rachel Zegler as Snow White, the remake still tells a "backward" story.
(Warning: The podcast interview contains profanity.)
"Literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback. 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 there, you know? It makes no sense to me," said Dinklage, who was born with a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia.
"You’re progressive in one way but then you’re still making that f------ backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together. What the f--- are you doing, man?" added the actor.
The "Cyrano" star, who's won four Emmys, a Golden Globe and a SAG Award during his long career, continued, jokingly asking, "Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soap box? I guess I’m not loud enough.
"I don’t know which studio that is, but they were so proud of that. All love and respect to the actress and all the people who thought they were doing the right thing. But I’m just like, you know, what are you doing?" he added.
A spokesperson for Disney responded to Dinklage's criticism on Tuesday, sharing in a statement with TODAY that Disney has been consulting with members of the dwarfism community to prepare for the movie.
"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," the statement said. "We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period."
Disney's response may please Dinklage, who told Maron later during their interview that he'd be excited if the 1937 Hollywood fairy tale could somehow be retold in a less offensive way.
"If you tell the story of 'Snow White' and it’s the most f----- up, cool, progressive spin on it, let’s do it. All in," he said.
Zegler, 20, who won a Golden Globe earlier this month for her performance as Maria in "West Side Story," was cast in the lead role of the upcoming live-action "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in June.
The movie, which will be directed by Marc Webb and also stars Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen, will be Disney's latest in a growing number of live-action reboots that includes "Mulan," "Maleficent," "Cinderella," "The Jungle Book," "Aladdin," and "Dumbo."