On the Changing Opportunities for Actors with Dwarfism
A while ago I had this video surface on my Instagram feed, of two men with dwarfism critiquing Peter Dinklage, saying "he opened the door from some amazing roles that most little people are not accessible to, and shut the door right behind him when he said 'no seven dwarfs [...] When he came out and said that, it made them too afraid to cast us so they CGIed us"
I wanted to counter this by saying that despite these men's feelings are valid in some ways, (Using CG little people is in terrible taste when you could be casting real actors, and Peter does speak from a place of privilege as a white man) but we're reaching an amazing point in film where actors with dwarfism are able to step away from roles that no longer serve our community. Actors like Peter Dinklage and Francesca Mills are at the forefront of this incredible turning point we're seeing for little and disabled talents - and while change is never linear, embracing more serious roles will humanize little people and allow us to share our true stories.
Violet Ferguson says is splendidly in her video response:
"I am going to hold every single little person's hand when I say this, but the minute the dwarfism community acknowledges that our talent reaches far beyond the narrow boxes that we've been placed in and that we continue to place ourselves in, is when the industry will finally lose it's ability to capitalize off of these roles. We are worth so much more than these stereotypical roles and people with dwarfism need to realize that these roles are not the be-all-end-all. Peter Dinklage was able to acknowledge his self worth and tell the industry that our community is worth more than playing fantasy roles or roles that define our height. And unfortunately, there are some people in the community who have just not gotten to that stage of their self discovery journey yet - and instead of doing some self reflecting they take it out on a man who just wants better for his community"
(Cr: I did reach out to Violet for her permission to post this video! Please go check her out on Instagram as she makes such excellent content!)
