Comedian Margaret Cho has always been vocal about Hollywood's whitewashing, where white actors are mostly preferred to play the parts supposedly given to Asians in certain movies; and this time, on Marvel Cinematic Universe's Doctor Strange.

In particular, Cho was very upset that Tilda Swinton was cast to play The Ancient One, a male Tibetan character in the comic books. This opted Swinton to e-mail Cho and to privately discuss with her about her point of view, Vanity Fair reported. In the same report, it was stated that people are also outraged with the casting of Scarlett Johansson as the lead actress in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell movie, which is based on a popular Japanese manga series. They argued that a Japanese actor should have been casted to portray the lead role.

Actor and activist Goerge Tekai also stated on his Facebook page, "Let me get this straight, you cast a white actress so you wouldn't hurt sales...in Asia? This back-pedalling is nearly as cringeworthy as the casting. Marvel must think we're all idiots."

Swinton first e-mailed Cho on May 13, 2016. She stated that she wanted to have a private conversation with her about the controversy surrounding Doctor Strange and the debate on diversity. She claimed that it was very ironic, due to the fact that Marvel made efforts to avoid this controversy by not using stereotypes in the movie. They even wrote an Asian character in the movie, which is supposed to be a white Transylvanian in the comic books.

Cho replied to her e-mails and gave her thoughts about the issue. She also believes that Swinton promotes proper diversity in movies.

Diversity in Hollywood is very complex; they may not satisfy everybody with the decisions they are making, particularly when casting actors to portray certain roles.