Racial diversity has been a big issue in Hollywood and was even tackled in the latest Academy Awards. However, the issue is still brought up multiple times and the upcoming "Doctor Strange" movie has entered controversy for casting Tilda Swinton in the role of the Ancient One, an Asian character in the comic books.
However, screenwriter C. Robert Cargill revealed during an interview with "Double Toasted" that they were not white-washing the role. According to Cargill, casting the Ancient One as a female Caucasian was due to the cultural sensitivity regarding the original character's background from the comic books.
In the "Doctor Strange" comic books, the Ancient One is depicted as a native of Tibet. However, Marvel Studios could not just simply adapt this directly to the big screen as it would cause controversy with China, the largest source of international box office.
"If you acknowledge that Tibet is a place and that he's Tibetan, you risk alienating one billion people who think that that's [expletive]," the writer explained. "If we decide to go the other way and cater to China in particular and have him be in Tibet... if you think it's a good idea to cast a Chinese actress as a Tibetan character, you are out of your damn fool mind and have no idea what the [expletive] you're talking about."
As stated in a report from Screen Rant, China considers Tibet as a part of their nation but Tibet is currently claiming to be an independent country. By choosing either a Chinese or Tibetan character for the film would still cause them to anger both nations.
In order to avoid this, the studios ditched the entire racial background altogether and presented the Ancient One as a female Caucasian instead of an aged Tibetan male. It was also explained that they could not just cast the Ancient One as a different Asian citizen given that it would still encourage racial stereotyping.
"Doctor Strange" will be released in theaters this Nov. 4.
Cargill's statements are found at the 17:54 minute mark.
