Tilda Swinton has released the contents of a frank email correspondence with Margaret Cho, focusing on the issue of whitewashing in the Hollywood film industry and Swinton’s controversial turn as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange.
After comic Cho mentioned the conversation – and Swinton’s desire to keep it private – earlier this week on Bobby Lee’s TigerBelly podcast, Swinton shared the emails “for the opportunity to clarify” the issue.
Sent in May, months before Doctor Strange’s October release, the messages open with Swinton reaching out to Cho.
She asked Cho if they could discuss public perception that the role of The Ancient One, represented in Marvel comics as a Tibetan man, had been whitewashed to accommodate Swinton.
In response, Cho said “there’s a frustrated population of Asian Americans who feel the role should have gone to a person of Asian descent.
“The largerpart (sic) of the debate has to do with the ‘whitewashing’ of Asian and Asian Americans in film. Our stories are told by white actors over and over again and we feel at a loss to know how to cope with it.”
Swinton replied that “The Ancient One may have been written as a Tibetan man in the comics, but Marvel, in a conscious effort to shake up stereotypes, wanted to avoid tired cliché.
“They cast Chiwetel Ejiofor as the second lead – a white Transylvanian in the books. And wrote a significant Asian character to be played by Benedict Wong.”
Going further, she clarified that she never intended to take the role of the comic book Ancient One – rather, the reworked cinematic Ancient One, who is canonically of Celtic descent.
“I am as sick as anybody at the lack of a properly diverse cinematic universe…
Ducking the issue is not what I am about. I want to meet it, but, if possible, move things forward by how I meet it.”
Cho replied that the crux of the issue is that “it’s just a timing thing – Asian Americans are fed up with not being given roles even if the part called for someone of Asian descent,” before clarifying her take on Swinton.
“I believe very much that you as an artist are about diversity and your body of work shows that – but this particular case of the Ancient One is just another in a long list of ‘whitewashed’ Asian characters and so you’re likely to feel the heat of history.”
She also suggested Swinton could actually move into film production to promote Asian and Asian American inclusion in Hollywood films. Swinton replied she’s already doing just that, with an upcoming flick named Okja, starring none other than ol’ m8 Steven Yeun.
While Cho mentioned the privacy aspect of Swinton’s opening message made her feel uncomfortable during the podcast, she has also released another statement, telling Vulture “I believe my emails stand on their own and should be taken for the spirit in which they were intended.
“I am grateful that the debate has now entered the national discussion and remain a huge fan of Tilda’s.”
You can read the respectful but informative discussion in full, right here.
Source: Vulture.
Photo: Matthias Nareyek / Getty.
Photo: Matthias Nareyek / Getty.
