Actress and producer Terra Jolé, known for the Little Women series of reality television shows, revealed that Apple TV+ originally planned to cast dwarves or little people in their remake of Time Bandits. However, she notes the studio completely changed course after actor Peter Dinklage criticized Disney’s upcoming Snow White film.
Terra Jolé via Mini Mama YouTube
Back at the beginning of 2022, Dinklage appeared on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast where he criticized The Walt Disney Company for their upcoming live-action Snow White film.
Dinklage said at the time, “Well, you know, it’s really progressive to cast a— literally no offense to anyone, but I was a little taken aback by — they’re very proud to cast a Latina actress as Snow White. But you’re still telling the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs so.”
“Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there,” he continued. “It makes no sense to me. Because you’re progressive in one way but you’re still making that f*****g backward story of the seven dwarfs living in a cave. What the f*** are you doing, man?”
Peter Dinklage via The Graham Norton Show YouTube
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“Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox? I guess I’m not loud enough,” he said.
He then concluded, “I don’t know what studio that is. But they were so proud of that. And all love and respect to the actress and to the people who thought they were doing the right thing, but I’m just like, ‘What are you doing?’”
Later in the podcast, he added, “If you tell the story of Snow White and it’s most f***ed up cool, progressive spin on it? Let’s do it. All in. But I just don’t know.”
Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones (2019), HBO
Now, in a recent video upload to YouTube, Jolé detailed how she and her family were seemingly cast in Apple TV+’s Time Bandits series, but following Dinklage’s comments the production decided to change direction away from dwarf and little people actors.
She said, “I’m done keeping my mouth shut. Get ready with me as we discuss everything Time Bandits, the series, the movie, and Disney.
“Imagine my excitement when I got a direct call from the casting director stating that they wanted me to personally audition. What!?! I never even knew that this new series was happening. It hadn’t been released yet. We had no information about it. I was over the moon. So excited. I auditioned. Shortly after Joe [Gnoffo] got an audition as well. After both Joe and I auditioned, we got the most amazing call ever, ‘Please send in your passport information. We also need your Covid update.’ At this time people still were not traveling unless they were fully-. This meant you’re one step closer to New Zealand, that’s where it was going to be filmed.”
She added, “Joe and I both agreed that if he got it we would go and support him and if I got it we would go and support me, and we would take the entire family. Not only did we make sure that Joe’s passport and my passport were up to date, but Penny’s was expired so we went and had her passport updated just for this opportunity. Initially we were in contact with them almost every day with their team with scheduling, time frames, where we’d be filming, how we would transport children, the whole nine yards, and then crickets. Why?”
Episode 9. Tadhg Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Lisa Kudrow, Kal-El Tuck, Kiera Thompson and Rune Temte in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Jolé explained, “My team contacted their team and all of the sudden with no explanation whatsoever they stated they are going in a different direction. I was heartbroken not only were they going in a different direction for me, but they were going in a different direction for Joe as well. At the end of the day all I thought was this is going to be a really great opportunity for little people instead of that one little person that gets every single role out there.”
“There was [a] rumor that they weren’t using little people. I thought, ‘No way. There’s no way that they were affected by this whole Peter Dinklage thing.’ Allegedly Peter Dinklage has had a lot of effect on the industry when it comes to little people instead of helping little people get more entertainment jobs he has done the exact opposite.”
Episode 9. Tadhg Murphy, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Rune Temte, Kiera Thompson, Kal-El Tuck and Lisa Kudrow in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
As Jolé promised she did not just reveal that Apple TV+ seemingly went a different direction after Dinklage’s comments, but she also claims that Disney lied about reaching out to the dwarfism community. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, a Disney spokesman responded to Dinklage’s comments saying, “To avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.”
The spokesman added, “We look forward to sharing more as the film heads into production after a lengthy development period.”
Jolé shared, “I reached out to the largest little person community which is called Little People of America. Did they hear from Disney? No. So who’s this little person community you’re reaching out to? Is it by the name of PD [Peter Dinklage]?
Rachel Zegler as Snow White in Snow White (2025), Walt Disney Studios
She then notes Dinklage’s comments and Disney’s decision to axe dwarves from the film lined up with the casting for Time Bandits, “This is not about Snow White. This is about Time Bandits. But the timeline, the timeline is everything because right when they were Xing little people from Snow White — well they gave one a role — they were also deciding the casting for Time Bandits. Could it be that they had the PD [Peter Dinklage] effect? That’s what I’m going to call it: the PD effect.
“Allegedly, this PD effect is really jacking up jobs for a lot of little people that have vested their lives into this industry, that have moved to California for this industry, that have committed to this industry,” she said. “Whether it be taking on a role that may not be the starring role in a huge movie. Not just work, but work that we’re passionate about. Work that’s fun: acting.”
Roger Jean Nsengiyumva, Lisa Kudrow, Rune Temte, Charlyne Yi and Tadhg Murphy in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
From there she called out Hollywood’s hypocrisy when it comes to diversity and inclusion, “There is a hypocrisy within Hollywood and I feel like they champion diversity, but yet they don’t practice what they preach. Because I’m proud to be a dwarf. I am diagnosed with dwarfism. I am proud of that and there are not a lot of roles for people with dwarfism, and when those rules are taken away and given to an average sized person and they shrink them or they say, ‘Oh we changed the role entirely.'”
“Well, then make a different movie. Make a different show,” she declared. “This is not Time Bandits. This is not that show. Time Bandits is not the same as what you are portraying it. You can still make it diverse, changing the race, having a girl.”
Charlyne Yi, Rune Temte, Tadhg Murphy and Roger Jean Nsengiyumva in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
From there, Jolé addressed comments made by the show’s Executive Producer and director Taika Waititi. Waititi said he did not believe that the show “should be defined, because of the presence of little people in it.”
She responded, “Why have little people at all? You’re telling me that you’re going to give other little people background or minimal roles just so that you can make it seem like it’s still the same kind of movie? An example, if you don’t think that it’s inappropriate, inappropriate to have one of the main characters a little person. You decided to put a cherub. That’s right his character name is Cherub. Dane Noonan, who is in Time Bandits, the Cherub?
Taika Waititi in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Next, she addressed comments by the show’s co-writer Jermaine Clement who informed the Associated Press that he wrestled with “whether it’s right to stereotype little people as magical creatures, and then also whether, by not doing that, you’re cutting out jobs for smaller actors.”
Furthermore, he noted that after the series received backlash for not casting little people that he and the production team “reacted to those complaints and added parts for some smaller actors.”
The AP also noted that “should the series be renewed for a second season, those roles would be more prominently featured.”
Jemaine Clement in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Jolé noted these comments made her “skin crawl.” She explained, “For him to state that it made me feel like, ‘Well if the dwarves are popular in the first season then we’re going to give him a bigger bone in the second season and we’ll make them a bigger part,’ just because they felt guilty. News flash they were the bigger part. They were.”
She then pointed to fellow actress Abbie Purvis’ comments regarding the casting decision from 2022. Purvis, who is the granddaughter of Jack Purvis, who played Wally in the original 1981 movie, stated in a now-deleted TikTok video, “This was a film that changed the times and it was ahead of the times, to be honest, because people like me weren’t treated the same as they are now.”
She continued, “For a generation that is so big on talking about inclusivity and diversity and making sure that everyone’s heard, this whole casting choice is just absurd.”
Newsweek reports she added, “Please can someone answer me? Can you tell me why you’re tarnishing, not only my late grandfather’s legacy, but the other short actors in that film … just because it doesn’t fit your normality?”
Jolé said, “Abbie Grace, who is the granddaughter of the actor that played Wally, put it perfectly that she thought this was going to be a real opportunity for the dwarfism community, for the little person community. As did I. As did so many other little people. We thought that this was a chance for little people to have an opportunity. Sadly, that’s not the case.”
Rune Temte, Lisa Kudrow and Roger Jean Nsengiyumva in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
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She later added, “The industry states that they are now more inclusive, but I tend to disagree. Even when it comes down to something as simple as standing in. That used to be how we would survive when we weren’t doing other mainstream jobs. And now they have average sized people just standing on their knees for children. That’s a whole a new story.”
From there, she returned to Time Bandits and questioned what Terry Gilliam, the film’s original director, thinks about the Apple TV+ show, “I wonder what are his thoughts? How does he feel about this new series? The one that he originally made into some would say a cult classic.”
She concluded the video saying, “I was hurt by being discriminated with an average sized person. The disability community is just as important as any other community.”
Lisa Kudrow, Rune Temte, Kal-El Tuck, Tadhg Murphy, Charlyne Yi and Roger Jean Nsengiyumva in “Time Bandits,” now streaming on Apple TV+.
Time Bandits released on Apple TV+ on July 24th.
What do you make of Jolé’s comments?
