Casting a white actress in a role for an Asian man was a mistake, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige now says.
In casting Tilda Swinton, the whitewashing of The Ancient One in the 2016 movie “Doctor Strange” has been one of the most criticized moves of the past decade of superhero films.
“We thought we were being so smart, and so cutting-edge,” Feige told Men’s Health in a new cover story out Wednesday.
”We’re not going to do the cliche of the wizened, old, wise Asian man.”
When “Doctor Strange,” co-starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams and Benedict Wong, was release, director Scott Derrickson said Swinton’s casting was intentional and that the “stereotype of The Ancient One” had to be “undone.”
“I wanted it to be a woman, a middle-aged woman. Every iteration of that script played by an Asian woman felt like a ‘Dragon Lady,’” Derrickson told Variety in October 2016.
“I’m very sensitive to the history of ‘Dragon Lady’ representation and Anna May Wong films. I moved away from that. Who’s the magical, mystical, woman with secrets that could work in this role? I thought Tilda Swinton.”
But Feige now says the backlash was a “wake-up call”
“‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliche and cast an Asian actor?’” he told Men’s Health. “And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”
Hollywood continues to be criticized for whitewashing, including for Emma Stone in “Aloha” and Scarlett Johansson in “Ghost in the Shell.”
