Comedian Margaret Cho appeared on Bobby Lee's TigerBellypodcast this week, joining the Mad TV alum for a discussion that touched on everything from mummified bodies to the recent controversy surrounding Tilda Swinton's role in Marvel's Doctor Strange. Cho even detailed an alleged chat she had with Swinton, telling Lee they had engaged in a lengthy fight about the part.
"It was a long fight about why the part should not have gone to her," Cho told Lee, as spotted byVulture. "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.'" That conclusion, Lee joked, was "like 'I have a black friend.'"
Swinton, according to Cho, had first initially emailed her about the whitewashing accusations surrounding the movie. "Tilda eventually emailed me and she said that she didn't understand why people were so mad about Doctor Strange and she wanted to talk about it, and wanted to get my take on why all the Asian people were mad," Cho said. "It was so weird."
However, in a statement to Jezebel Friday afternoon, a rep for Swinton refuted Cho's telling of events and shared what they say is the "entire unedited and only conversation" that ever transpired. "We've never met, but you’ve been in my head for years —I'm a fan," Swinton says in the first email. "I want to ask you a favor now which is sprung out of a truly important social conversation but may be heading for some crazy-making shit. The diversity debate - ALL STRENGTH to it - has come knocking at the door of Marvel's new movie DR STRANGE [sic]."
Was Swinton and Cho's discussion fairly characterized in that TigerBelly chat? Peep the entire email exchange here, then listen to the podcast interview below and decide for yourself.
