'Doctor Strange' News, Spoilers: Tilda Swinton Responds to Whitewashing Controversy; Trailer Only Shows 'Small Taste' of Film's Magic
Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton has responded to the backlash surrounding her character in the upcoming Marvel superhero film "Doctor Strange."
Months before its release, the highly anticipated Benedict Cumberbatch-starrer has already received praise for its casting of the "The Imitation Game" lead actor as the Marvel film's titular superhero/neurosurgeon and for the re-characterization of the film's Ancient One, the mystic who leads Doctor Strange into discovering and learning the mystic arts.
But while many have commended the casting of a female in the role of what was a male character in the source material, others have reacted to what they deemed to be the whitewashing of what was supposed to be an Asian character.
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In the Marvel Comics, the Ancient One is a Tibetan-born sorcerer. Yet, according to Swinton, her character, "[is not] actually an Asian character."
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday, April 21, during the night screening of her film "A Bigger Splash" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Swinton said, "I wasn't asked to play an Asian character, you can be very well assured of that."
"You just have to wait and see, because it's not an Asian character," she said with a smile.
Meanwhile, "Doctor Strange" co-screenwriter C. Robert Carghill recently teased the upcoming film, saying that what was shown in the trailer was merely a "small taste" of the magic and craziness in the film.
According to Carghill, the world bending in on itself and the Ancient One punching out Doctor Strange's astral form are just the tip of the iceberg.
"You are only getting a small taste of just how crazy this movie gets," he said during the podcast "The Sunday Service." "We have only just the slightest hints of magic in there."
"There are major characters you don't even glimpse in that trailer, there is so much stuff going on, that this thing is just nutty, the stuff they let us do, I can't believe they let us do it," he added.
"Doctor Strange" is now in post-production and will hit cinemas November 4.
