#actors with dwarfism

[a-little-revolution]

It seems like you're a big fan of Warwick Davis, I was wondering if there are any other little people actors you really like, especially women and trans/nb actors?

Hello! Yes I do enjoy Warwick Davis! Willow (1988) remains one of my favourite LP films, and I've really enjoyed his career of fantastical characters.

Like a lot of industries, white men make up a lot of the most famous Little actors (Warwick Davis, Peter Dinklage, Danny Woodburn, Martin Klebba, Verne Troyer), so I'm happy to mention some of my favourites outside that group!

Linda Hunt is a favourite of mine - she's a Hollywood veteran best known for her role in The Year of Living Dangerously (1982) where she was the first actor to win an academy award for playing someone of the opposite sex!! She's been on Broadway, done tv, film, and voice acting! You may know her as Lady Proxima in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018).

If you think you don't know Deep Roy, chances are you do! He's been a scale actor in countless award winning films including Star Wars (1980), Star Trek (2009-2016), The Never Ending Story (1984), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and so many more! We owe so many beloved characters to scale actors and people hardly know it - Deep Roy has been responsible for dozens of them, I adore him.

Despite Patty Maloney's vast career in acting, I know her as Lois Addams from The Addams Family (1991)! Before my time she was in a variety of tv shows and films including Star Trek Voyager (1996), Little House on the Prairie (1982), and The Lord of the Rings (1978).

Cara Mailey is a young actress, author, presenter and activist! She's known for her role in Derry Girls (2018) and Read all About It! (2021), as well as her ebook "I Got This" - which speaks on her experience living with Achondroplasia. I wanted to be sure to give her an honourable mention because at only fifteen she's already become an activist for the LP community! I'm excited to see how her career evolves!

Thank you for the ask! Be sure to check these folks out!

[tyrannuspitch]

loki odinson, the nine realms' tallest short king,

[nessa007]

Why do the dwarfs look cartoony like its life action they are supposed to look like short humans not like they got dragged out of the animated movie. Like what is the point of live action if they dont make it look realistic. If this is honestly the way they are going with it i might have preffered the woodland spirits or wathever they wanted to turn them into originally.

me @ disney

[sweetthoughtsbymarie]

October 30th

Peter Dinklage – Actor (Achondroplasia Dwarfism) Dinklage has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, and stands 4 ft 5 in (1.35 m) tall. He has used his celebrity status to raise social awareness of dwarfism. He was born June 11th 1969, like a lot of disabled people Peter had to come to terms with his diagnosis and let go of his anger and bitterness. He is married and has children.…

[xremus-is-deadx]

No one will ever do a live adaptation of Snow White as well as Mirror Mirror did.

-Fantastic costume designs. Because it wasn't made by Disney, her outfits are different but still beautiful.

-Iconic cast (like I love lots of members of the cast)

-So magical but at the same time very real

-Funny

-ACTORS WITH DWARFISM PLAYING THE 7 DWARFS!!!! ALL OF THEM, 7 DIFFERENT ACTORS, ALL OF THEM REALLY INCREDIBLE ACTORS PERFECT FOR THE ROLES!!!

-Actually focuses on characters other than just Snow, which makes the story so interesting and unique whilst still sticking to the basics of the story

Overall, Mirror Mirror is such a good live action adaptation. It's not 100% true to the animated Disney film, and it's a bit more heavy plot-wise, but it's INCREDIBLE!!

Live Action Snow White

I hate how this could have been down WELL if Disney cared.

- Have actors with Dwarfism act as the Dwarves + consult experts and people w/ dwarfism on avoiding stereotypes and showing them as actual people.

- If you want a non-white Snow White, go for East Asia, specifically Japan, since there's some Japanese culture you could reference in regards to 'hair dark as night." Like the book In Praise of Shadows, you could have subtle nods to Japanese Aestheticism. (Although Rachel Z LITERALLY looks like a real life Disney Princess. If she's Snow White, they should have leaned into her Colombian + Polish background).

- Hell, if you want someone who isn't white or East Asian, you could get an actress with albinism or even vitiligo (would look a bit like snow?). That would be really cool, actually.

- You could make some interesting references to Japanese history and fashion. Like Kanzashi sticks as hair accessories AND weapons. They were sometimes used to fend off attacks & assassinate political rivals. Some Kanzashi has bells hanging from them that jingle in the wind. That would explain why the Prince would find her in the woods. I feel like we'd all be confused about hearing bells in the middle of nowhere lol.

- You could go with practical effects and actually make everything look magical. and REAL. NO CURSED POLAR EXPRESS CGI DWARVES PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!

I hate that Disney is doing cheap rage bait and are happy to throw her to the wolves. They KNEW what would happen. They're just trying to start shit at this point.

Also people saying that Gal Godot is prettier than Rachel Zegler so she has no reason to be jealous haven't watched the original Snow White film. Not to mention Gal Godot sure is RACIST enough to be jealous of biracial woman's looks.

[catgirl-kaiju]

okay, so i recently watched a god-awful movie from 1971 called "Horror of the Blood Monsters". while it contained some so-bad-it's good moments, it was mostly unbearable to watch. however, the parts that were the most interesting and entertaining, were colorized clips from a 1956 black-&-white Filipino english language film called "Tagani" (Alternatively called "Kahariang Bato" for the Tagalong release). I mean just look at this!

this looks so fun!

there's elaborate creature costuming that is really fun to see and at times fairly impressive for a low budget Filipino production in the 50s! i mean, just look at these sequences involving humanoid crab and bat creatures!

and there's a surprising amount of body diversity too! there are fat folks and a few actors with dwarfism who don't appear to be playing nonhuman roles!

so, i thought, i should find a copy of Tagani that i can watch since that's what i'd really like to be watching in the first place. but...

i can't fucking find it anywhere.

no uploads, no streaming, no home video releases, not even any indications of film reels being shown of it. what the fuck? where is Tagani??? have i stumbled into lost media?

the only indications of its existence are the footage in Horror of the Blood Monsters, a poster, and a trailer uploaded to youtube. i found links to the film uploaded to youtube when i searched on duckduckgo, but when i clicked on them, the uploads were gone! I was able to find a 1080p copy of HotBM, so in a just world, i would be able to find a 1080p copy of Tagani as well.

if anyone has this magnificent film archived or knows where i can go to find a copy of this, please let me know! i'd love to watch it and help preserve it! if you'd like to watch the Tagani segments in Horror of the Blood Monsters, i recommend skipping most of the portions involving the main cast of white american actors for the best experience. I do not recommend watching the full film as it's SO boring in most scenes. but the Tagani scenes never fail to entertain

[cherry-pop-elf]

Mouthwashing Actor AU

Jimmy: Jimmy Ray (a nod to him being named after a Lana Del Ray Song) Is a type cast where he’s the sweetest person to ever exist, but is extremely good at playing Villians. It be like that in the horror industry. He won’t lie though. Playing a role like this was his biggest challenge, as he would need to get into the head of a You Know What.

Curly: Curly Ray, aka Jimmy’s older brother. He was born Amelia (aka his limbs were never fully developed) and is often type casted to play monsters or characters that require a certain mobility. Much like how child/people will dwarfism play certain characters. He’s happy that he gets to play a normal person, even for a short while. (That would be explaining why we get very little screen time of Curly looking normal)

Anya: Anya Ray. She was originally Jimmy’s wife, but it was a case of lavender marriage. She needed to stay in the states to finish her schooling and he was terrified of coming out as gay. Fortunately Jimmy found his one true love and Anya ended up marrying Curly as they had bonded so much through the traumatic situation. She is a credited doctor who uses her knowledge to help make the medical scenes more real. Along with fellow actress. New to acting but not the acting society.

Daisuke: Daisuke Ray. Daisuke is the one who Jimmy fell for. He was a special effects/makeup artist (who specialized in horror) that was pretty much part of the team because of often working on whatever madness Curly would get dressed up as. He wasn’t originally meant to play a role in the show, but the director saw that all of them were extremely close and found it very important to have to convey real emotions and a sense of reality. So this is Daisukes first role, and by proxy he is rather hard to get into a serious mindset. It works in the end as his sweet and playful silly attitude leads to plenty of improve that conveys realism the director wants.

Swansea: Director Swan. He’s the one in charge of it all, and plays a role as well. More so as the background character (hence why we have more fleshing from everyone else compared to him) and wanted to convey an important and serious story. He’s a semi retired director, so he uses his time to make passion projects. That means he has more ability to follow what HE wants and not get swayed by other people’s PG needs. He saw how these four specific actors/special effects artists were already very close and it brought him the motivation to follow through on this latest passion project. Hence why they all use their real first names. A means to really hammer in this is a real story, with in its sci-fi elements.

[jaybear1701]

The thing I love most about Willow is that it’s a fun, light-hearted show that’s an homage to the original movie and others 80s fantasy films like the Princess Bride and Labyrinth -- but also subverts well-worn tropes and celebrates diversity to create something unique in a mainstream series. Like:

The quest launches to save a prince, not a princess.

Elora, initially in love with kidnapped Prince Airk, meets Graydon, another prince who is a POC and, based on what we’ve seen, everything Airk is not. I don’t really het ship, but the show seems to be leaning toward a Graylora “end game” and, if so, I’d love that for them.

The representation in this show is fantastic. Heroic roles traditionally reserved for men -- most typically white men -- are played by an actor with dwarfism, a British-Indian actor, an American-Guatemalan actor, and two mixed-race women. Not a stretch to say this is why some out there (we all know who) decry the show as “too woke.” But to me it’s one of the show’s many strengths. 

We’ve had many a narrative about a “chosen one.” But how often is the chosen one: 1) a woman and 2) whose “protector” is another woman, let alone a gay one. Amazing.

On that note, how refreshing is it to see such a layered relationship between Elora and Kit. There’s the push and pull of destiny and duty, and resentment and jealousy from family dynamics. But in the end it evolves into grudging respect and sisterhood. It’s the kind of dynamic normally reserved for two men in these types of genre shows. 

And Jade. My precious Jade. A woman knight of color protecting her princess is everything I’ve ever wanted in life. Tanthamore is Lancelot and Guinevere level romance -- but with lesbians. Come on. I cannot say enough about them. 

I’m sure there are more examples, but this is just off the top of my head. 

[thatwholethingwiththeduck]

the balcony bromance shows of the 2000s: some notes

(boston legal, 5 seasons, 2004-08 / house md, 8 seasons, 2004-12)

you will wonder, how do these guys keep their jobs i mean seriously, in many episodes

there is a balcony where the two male main characters + coworkers hang out + have homoerotic moments

the younger man is played by an actor who was a very beautiful boy in an iconic 1980s movie; said movie will be referenced by name in an episode

the older man is played by an actor best known for another iconic role like say maybe a useless foppish British gentleman or a starship captain; this role will outstrip it

candace bergen appears, delivers killer put-downs

john larroquette appears, is john larroquette

moderate drinking

copious drinking

many many beautiful women and attractive men will come and go in the cast, sometimes without explanation; the two guys will be there for all of it, come hell or high water

the guys in question love women, love them love them love them, one of them has been married multiple times, the other is a slut with one dark haunting woman behind him, but they will nevertheless end up together in a life-changing situation when the series finishes

someone has a sex doll and is overly fond of her

character gets away with murder

character gets away with malpractice

someone says ‘lock and load’ while wielding a weapon in the workplace (water pistols count shut up)

one of the actors involved pretends there is no homoeroticism whatsoever; has absolutely never played one half of an iconic queer-coded couple ever before nope nope nope

smoking cigars, phallically

meredith hope eaton appears + does some groundbreaking stuff on representing characters with dwarfism

jail time

character sees psychiatrist played by someone about to become best known for iconic comedy role rather than previous serious roles (sue sylvester, captain holt)

autistic characters that main characters understand in ways that others don’t, for what are obvious reasons to 2020s viewers

the Only Sane Woman has a thing for one of the guys and lets them away with more than is reasonable given her position of responsibility

epic, destructive jealousy and meddling when your best boy friend starts hanging out with someone else

character says something insanely un-PC and/or downright offensive to someone, then makes life better for same someone using their mad professional skillz

you will wonder, but seriously are these guys sleeping together because that would make this plot moderately less insane, often

you will never wonder, do these guys love each other; the show doesn't work if they don't

[a-little-revolution]

What are your thoughts on Warwick Davis? He is a famous British actor with dwarfism. I loved him in Willow since it was my first exposure to him outside of the Hogwarts movies.

Hello! I have indeed discussed Warwick Davis on this blog! I absolutely adore him and his career, especially in Willow (1988) and his various roles in Harry Potter (though I no longer support J.K Rowling).

Like all Little actors, he's had to play some not so great roles, but for the most part Warwick has been a major talent within the fantasy genre. He is beloved in Hollywood and holds a special place in my heart!

[wushigod]

The Harry Potter actor pays tribute to his “favourite human”, who died on 24 March, saying: “I miss her hugs.” “Her passing has left a huge hole in our lives as a family,” he added. Mrs Davis was also an actor, appearing alongside her husband in the final Harry Potter film in 2010, in which she played a goblin. The couple, who lived near Peterborough, met on the set of the film Willow in 1988, before marrying three years later. The Star Wars star described Sammy, as he called her, as his “most trusted confidante and an ardent supporter of everything I did in my career”. She was a unique character, always seeing the sunny side of life she had a wicked sense of humour and always laughed at my bad jokes,” he said. Davis said that with his wife by his side, he felt sure he could achieve anything, adding: “It was like having a super-power.” “Without Sammy, there would have been no Tenable quiz show, no Willow series. No Idiot Abroad Series 3.” He added it had been his wife who persuaded comedian Ricky Gervais to send him with Karl Pilkington for the travel series. The couple’s children, Harrison and Annabelle, joined their father in paying tribute, saying “her love and happiness carried us through our whole lives”. “Mum is our best friend and we’re honoured to have received a love like hers,” they added. Davis played both Professor Flitwick and the goblin Griphook in all eight films in the Harry Potter franchise. He also played several characters in the Star Wars film series, and starred in both the Willow film and the 2022 sequel. His wife’s other acting credits include the children’s series Through the Dragon’s Eye (1989). Outside of acting, Samantha Davis and her husband founded the charity Little People UK in 2012 to help individuals with dwarfism and their families. “She was passionate about helping people, without judgement. She had time for everyone and a genuine listening ear,” the Tenable host said. Davis said in recent years his wife’s mobility had become impaired but she was “determined that it would not impact her quality of life”. Disney, the network the Willow series was on, said Samantha was “beloved member of the UK film and TV community”, adding: “Our thoughts are with the Davis family during this difficult time”.

[sea-chest]

Remember when Mirror Mirror came out and hired actual Little People to play the dwarves (*cough* instead of cgi'ing other actors to have the proportions of Dwarfism *cough*) and also tied their Dwarfism into the plot and their characters?

[wendynerdwrites]

I made a Dragon Age Inquisition fan cast

Top down, left to right:

Amber Midthunder as Inquisitor Ellana Lavellan

Juju Chan as Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast

Kangara Ranaut as Lady Josephine Montilyet

Lotte Verbeek as Sister Leliana

Charlie Hunam as Ser Cullen Rutherford

Santiago Cabrera as Warden Blackwall

Jacob Anderson as Solas

Dave Bautista as The Iron Bull

Danai Gurira as First Enchanter Vivienne de Fer

Dafne Keen as Sera

Peter Dinklage as Varric (I know he's everyone's fan cast, but in my defense, there is a severely limited amount of usable gifs and footage of suitable actors with dwarfism.)

Anirudh Pisharody as Lord Dorian Pavus

Noah Schnapp as Cole

[sweetthoughtsbymarie]

October 11th

Tony Cox is an Actor who has Dwarfism lets take a look at Tony’s story. One of my favorite movies personally of Tony’s is Bad Santa 1 and 2. Tony was born March, 31st 1958. Tony’s form of dwarfism is Achondroplasia. This affects his bone growth in the limbs,spine, and skull. He has had challenges that he has been open about such as demeaning. He also said that competion for roles for the…

[riddlerosehearts]

can i be honest and just say that the snow white remake deciding to get rid of the romance is SO incredibly annoying to me because like... snow white's prince is what people like to claim the princesses are. he doesn't have a canon name, he doesn't show up anywhere except at the beginning and end of the story, literally all he does is sing to snow white and kiss her, he essentially has no personality and his one and only purpose is to be a love interest. rachel zegler claims that the original snow white has no function beyond "someday my prince will come", but really, she's an abuse victim who chooses to be kind, to have hope and to dream of love, and to take control of her own life by doing housework for the dwarves in exchange for being allowed to stay with them. the prince is the one who has no function beyond "one song", other than to rescue snow white and make her happy!!

but the thing is, he wasn't planned to be such a nothing character!! walt wanted to do more with him, if only they hadn't had so much trouble animating him at the time. and i was hoping so badly that the remake would flesh him out and give snow white a truly beautiful romance with her prince, like she deserves, because there is nothing wrong with an abused teenage girl, or any girl for that matter, wanting to find true love! but disney has decided that actually there is, i guess?! i was hoping maybe they could be childhood friends who met before snow white's parents died, because in the original movie it seems possible, to me at least, that they already knew each other and that's why he was so comfortable sneaking past the castle walls and joining in on her song, and why she was so immediately enchanted by him. that maybe the reason she was surprised at first and tried to run from him was because her abusive stepmother didn't want him around and might harm him. or if not that, maybe he wants to work out a trade deal between his kingdom and hers and he comes by and introduces himself like a normal person instead of sneaking in. but instead they're just getting rid of him entirely and at this point i'm surprised the cinderella remake gave kit and ella such a beautifully developed love story instead of just removing prince charming and making cinderella some kind of shallow girlboss.

and then also, they're not including the dwarves all because peter dinklage complained that it's stereotypical to have a story about dwarves living in a cave when, um, they literally fucking don't?!?! it's kind of a pretty significant plot point that the house snow white is staying in is their house and they just work as miners 😭 i'm so tired of celebrities who probably haven't watched a disney movie since they were in diapers thinking they need to say shit like this. AND this whole decision is not even working out for disney because now they're also getting slammed by actors with dwarfism who are understandably disappointed at losing the chance to audition for those roles. when they could've just idk, kept the dwarves and taken the opportunity to be inclusive and give work to a highly underrepresented demographic instead of removing them based on blatantly false information?? and if the dwarves working as miners is still considered stereotypical/harmful, then why not... give them a different job that isn't?

sorry it's just. ugh. disney would be nothing without snow white and every single time i see promotional stuff for the remake it's all just the cast and crew disrespecting snow white and trashing it and saying they're making it better by cutting out its most important elements. i have nothing to look forward to with this movie anymore (not that i was looking forward to it that much to begin with) because apparently the only thing it shares with the original is its title character, and i'm sure she'll also be nothing like her animated counterpart.

edit because i didn't really expect anyone to see this: idk if the whole "getting rid of the romance" thing is true because after writing this i remembered that i've also heard something about the prince getting replaced with a new "robin hood-esque" love interest named johnathan?? so if they're still keeping him then there will still be romance i guess, it just won't be the classic fairytale romance snow white is associated with, and my frustration toward them choosing not to develop the prince into an actual character still stands. ESPECIALLY SINCE i also read that snow is supposed to "ride into battle with him"?! snow white?! imagine if in cinderella (2015) they changed prince charming into a roguish robin hood type and had ella fight battles with him. it would've been so weird and so far removed from the animated cinderella in a very jarring way. i hate it. also, because of an annoying tag i got on this post i also feel the need to add that i do NOT have a problem with "political correctness" or rachel zegler being latina lmao. i do, however, have a problem with her insulting the original snow white while openly admitting that she has not watched the movie since she was a child.

[mer-acle]

What is it with studios being so terrible at responding to criticism.

I don't mean ignoring constructive criticism, though they do that too, I mean if they do react and change something and it's the most baffling illogical out-of-pocket thing ever.

Example:

Disney remakes Snow White and the 7 dwarves

Peter Dinklage speaks out saying the movie is problematic because of the portrayal of the dwarves

Now this is a criticism to be taken seriously and evaluated. Ideally you would talk to an organization for people with restricted growth and figure out if it's just his opinion or something widely agreed upon in the community. Part of it should also be looking into what exactly the problem is and if it's fixable without basically changing the entire story

Now I can't really say Disney only took Dinklage's criticism into consideration, they did say they did consult several people from the community but it's not exactly transparent

Regardless they end up changing the dwarves to magical creatures to avoid stereotyping.

Now other people from the community speak out that this decision takes away rare acting opportunities from them, again, understandable and important to consider.

So what does Disney do now? Do they backtrack, do they stand their ground on the change?

Mind you, both options could be sold as listening to the community

So naturally Disney does the third option.

CGI dwarves.

I cannot begin to describe the bafflement this decision fills me with. Like, how do you fuck up this bad? This simultaneously plays into the stereotypes Dinklage criticized and gives not a single actor from the dwarfism community an acting opportunity??? Nobody wins here.

I'm not saying Disney would make any decision bc they actually care about people with dwarfism, they do not. But why, as a corporation, would you make a decision that is guaranteed to make the entire community unhappy? I am confused as a human being because the logic isn't logicing, but even from a capitalist standpoint there is no sense in this and i cannot fathom this decision was made.

Sorry this specific example is the one that's been worming around in my brain lol maybe I'm missing how this is actually the perfect solution or something