Marvel’s Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson has heard your concerns about the movie’s whitewashing.
Sometimes “complaining on the Internet” actually works — because sometimes you have intelligent arguments, that can’t be ignored.
This seems to be the case for fans voicing concerns about Doctor Strange, Marvel’s upcoming supernatural superhero film starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the titular doctor, and Tilda Swinton as the gender- and race-bent Ancient One.
When the trailer came out, it was followed by an immediate outcry of concerns over the movie’s seeming appropriation and erasure of Asian culture.
While everyone agrees that Tilda Swinton will do a fantastic job as the Ancient One, deciding to make the character of Celtic origin — while still placing her in Asia (decidedly not Tibet) — doesn’t sit well with fans and professionals in Hollywood who are tired of the lack of Asian representation on screen.
As our Donya Abramo argued in her brilliant article on the topic:
“By removing The Ancient One’s Tibetan origins, yet keeping the setting decidedly Asian, they have been erased from the narrative entirely, and the movie has shifted into more explicit Orientalist overtones. It makes it incredibly difficult to celebrate a female Ancient One at the expense of other, much needed representation — and there are certainly enough Asian and Asian American actors that both could have happened. It also sets a dangerous precedent that there are only two options for Asians in Hollywood: stereotype or invisible.”
The situation was only made worse when Marvel released a statement about the issue, claiming to have a “very strong record of diversity in its casting,” and that making the Ancient One’s origin Celtic is an example of how Marvel “regularly departs from stereotypes.”
Asian industry professionals Hollywood have been particularly outspoken about the issues with this, and now, Scott Derrickson has revealed via Twitter that he’s paying attention:
Raw anger/hurt from Asian-Americans over Hollywood whitewashing, stereotyping & erasure of Asians in cInema.
I am listening and learning.
— Scott Derrickson (@scottderrickson) May 4, 2016
While the movie is done and dusted, it’s always wonderful to see directors acknowledge the backlash to their perpetuation of tropes or erasure (similarly, we’ve recently seen the Russo brothers call out the need for LGBT representation in Marvel movies), as opposed to insisting there isn’t a problem to begin with — and we can only hope that the studios are listening and learning, too!