Tilda Swinton calls her controversial Doctor Strange casting a 'hot, stick, gnarly moment'

In a new profile for Variety, actress Tilda Swinton addresses the controversy around her casting as The Ancient One in 2016's Doctor Strange, dubbing it a “hot, sticky, gnarly moment."

Let's take a look back at the casting itself, which was particularly egregious at a time when every white woman from Scarlett Johansson to Emma Stone was being cast to play Asian characters – and didn't exactly offer up any kind of logical defences in their favour. So Swinton's casting as the elderly Tibetan man, who was a longtime character in the Marvel comics, was, well, bizarre to put it kindly, though certainly a play at her penchant for choosing unusual roles.

For her performance, Swinton shaved her head and donned traditional clothing. It was considered a missed opportunity for an actor of actual Asian descent to play a key Marvel role. At the time, however, Marvel Studios released a statement noting that “the Ancient One is a title that is not exclusively held by any one character, but rather a moniker passed down through time, and in this particular film the embodiment is Celtic. We are very proud to have the enormously talented Tilda Swinton portray this unique and complex character along-side our richly diverse cast.” Celtic, just for this film? How convenient!

This past May, Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige touched on the mess to Men's Health, saying he regretted the casting and that the ensuing backlash was a “wake-up call to say, ‘Well, wait a minute, is there any other way to figure it out? Is there any other way to both not fall into the cliché and cast an Asian actor?’ And the answer to that, of course, is yes.”

Speaking to Variety now, Swinton said she was "very, very grateful" of Feige's comments, adding, “I remember at the time having a question mark in my own mind, and being attendant to the public response to the idea that a Scottish woman will be playing this character, and being aware that there was no resistance at all — there was widespread welcome — which shifted at a certain point, for very good reasons with which I had an enormous amount of sympathy.”

(By the way, that kind of "no resistance" response is what happens when you live and work in a bubble and might need to start visiting other bubbles.)

Swinton added that she felt a "conscious" wave of criticism grew "righteously," and that “the audience feels ever more empowered to contribute to the narrative and to feel heard within the narrative, and that’s a really healthy social development.”

But this controversy didn't end there. At the time, Swinton had reached out to Korean comedian Margaret Cho in hopes of her explaining the situation and white-washing to her, despite the two never having met. Yikes. In December 2016, Cho shared details of their exchange, noting Swinton had even told her to not tell anyone what they discussed, and that  Swinton essentially “wanted to get my take on why all the Asian people were so mad…and it was so weird.” 

On fellow comedian Bobby Lee's TigerBelly podcast, she said, “It was a long fight about why the part should not have gone to her. That’s what I thought: The part should not have gone to her. We’d fight about it and basically it ended with her saying, ‘Well I’m producing a movie and Steven Yeun is starring.’” To which Lee aptly joked, “Oh, like I have a black friend." Cho then added, “It was weird because I felt like a house Asian, like I’m her servant." 

Tilda also released the full convo to Jezebel.

Reflecting on that moment today, Swinton said, “I made a questionable decision to reach out to somebody in a certain way, which was naive and clearly confusing, because their misunderstanding came about because of it. I was embarrassed that I had maybe gone up a blind alley in starting the correspondence in the first place — maybe I had confused matters — but beyond that, I have zero regrets.” So many maybes!

Swinton, who can next be seen in Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, never did apologize to Cho. Though in a 2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the comedian revealed that Swinton's reps had actually demanded she apologize to the actress. Hot, sticky and gnarly indeed. 

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