HBO has a rather interesting film in the pipeline at the moment, which is a biopic called My Dinner with Herve. The film features the life of Fantasy Island and The Man with the Golden Gun star Herve Villechiaze.
Villechiaze is the most famous dwarf actor from the 70s, and starring in the role is Game of Thrones veteran, Peter Dinklage.
Dinner with Herve follows Villechiaze’s unique relationship with a journalist (Jamie Dornan). The trailer for the film is great, and Dinklage nails Villechiaze’s accent perfectly. Check the trailer out below:
After the trailer dropped, there were immediate cries of whitewashing via social media. The SJW’s say that the very caucasian Dinklage should not portray the half-Filipino Villechiaze. The only problem is that Villechiaze is not half-Filipino at all.
In a recent interview with EW, Dinklage shoots down these allegations, and shoots a warning to those who believe everything they read on the internet:
Image: HBO
“The internet is the best thing and the worst thing. The funny thing about the backlash is it addresses what we address in the film about not judging a book by its cover. Herve was judged by how he looked, and cast and perceived to be who he is accordingly.
It says [Villechiaze was half-Filipino] on Wikipedia. Family members can’t change information on there. My daughter’s name was ‘Zelig’ on Wikipedia for a long time.
Her name is not Zelig. I don’t know who is able to put information up, but there are so many things on there that aren’t true.
Image: HBO
There’s this term ‘whitewashing.’ I completely understand that. But Herve wasn’t Filipino. Dwarfism manifests physically in many different ways. I have a very different type of dwarfism than Hervé had. I’ve met his brother and other members of his family.
He was French, and of German and English descent.
So, it’s strange these people are saying he’s Filipino. They kind of don’t have any information.
This [movie] isn’t ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s.’ Personally, I would never do that, and I haven’t done that, because he wasn’t. People are jumping to conclusions based on a man’s appearance alone and that saddens me.”
