A dwarf actor is criticizing the decision to cast Hugh Grant as a diminutive Oompa-Loompa in the upcoming musical “Wonka.”
Actors with dwarfism portrayed the characters in previous Willy Wonka movies. George Coppen thinks the tradition should have continued for the new film, which deals with the candy maker’s earliest days and stars Timothée Chalamet.
“A lot of actors [with dwarfism] feel like we are being pushed out of the industry we love,” Coppen told the BBC. “A lot of people, myself included, argue that dwarfs should be offered everyday roles in dramas and soaps, but we aren’t getting offered those roles.
“One door is being closed but they have forgotten to open the next one.”
Coppen, who previously appeared in the Disney+ revival of “Willow,” isn’t happy with the digital treatment given to Grant to make him better resemble people with dwarfism, either.
“They’ve enlarged his head so his head looks bigger. [I thought] what the hell have you done to him?” Coppen said.
So far, Grant’s take on an Oompa-Loompa has only been seen briefly near the end of the “Wonka” trailer, where he appears trapped in a glass jar.
Wonka (Chalamet) confronts him, saying, “So you’re the funny little man who’s been following me?”
Grant responds, “I will have you know that I am a perfectly respectable size for an Oompa-Loompa.”
Warner Brothers has not responded to media inquiries about Coppen’s comments, but “Wonka” director Paul King previously explained to the Hollywood Reporter exactly why he cast Grant as an Oompa-Loompa.
King noted that Wonka’s creator, Roald Dahl, made the Oompa-Loompas “incredibly sarcastic and judgmental and cruel” about the kids in the story.
“So I was really just thinking about that character; somebody who could be a real shit, and then — ah! Hugh!” King said. “Because he’s the funniest, most sarcastic shit I’ve ever met.”
“Wonka,” which also stars Keegan-Michael Key, Matt Lucas, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson and Olivia Colman, hits theaters Dec. 15.
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