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13 Questions: Warwick Davis

by Ouch Team

18th November 2007

Uppermost in my mind today is ...

That I need to catch up on paperwork before I start rehearsing for pantomime. I’m playing Doc in Snow White in Wimbledon with Bobby Davro and Ross Kemp. I never shy away from these sorts of roles - of course I am going to be offered jobs which suit my height. It all started for me 25 years ago, when my grandmother put me forward because they were looking for short people for Star Wars.

People think I'm ...

Warwick Davis
Not as ordinary as I think I am. They don’t approach me as much as I would like, because they think I’m too successful. But I’m still just me. I take the rubbish out and everything!

Not a lot of people know that I ...

Like touring in a caravan. When we pull up at a site and start setting the whole thing up, everyone has a good look. We all do it when a new caravan comes in, to see what equipment they have, so I don’t mind. It’s not necessarily because we are a family of short people.

The best piece of advice I would pass on is ...

To all budding actors ... have a back-up plan. Pursue it with vigour, but keep up your studies, so that when there isn’t any work you can do something else. I run Willow Management, which is the biggest agency for other short actors. We look after performers who are either under five feet and over seven feet tall. I’ve found that It’s actually more of a disability to be tall than short. I have no problem fitting into plane toilets etc, and the adaptations made for wheelchair users - such as the lowering of bank machines - work for me as well.

I excel at ...

Organising. Mess annoys me. I find vacuuming very therapeutic, but I hate ironing. I usually have no shirt on while ironing, because I’m ironing it, and I end up burning my chest.

My ideal dinner guest is ...

At the moment it would be a commissioning editor, because I want to pitch a show called Small Talk. It’s like a cross between a sitcom and a talk show, where celeb friends drop round. I think that short and other disabled actors should be more visible on TV, particularly in soap operas where there is so much scope to teach. The world worries about disability more than disabled people do.

I couldn't live without ...

Warwick Davis behind bars in a scene from the trailer for the movie 'ShortFellas'
My family, I guess. It’s a fickle business, so when it’s not a smooth ride, and you come home to a solid group of people who are with you whatever you're doing, that’s great.

If I didn't live in the UK, I'd live in ...

New Zealand. It’s like England thirty years ago - slower paced, with beautiful scenery and a feel good atmosphere.

Where do you spend most of your time?

On transport, travelling to or from somewhere. I haven’t spent much time at home this year. I’ve been to New Zealand, America and Prague for Prince Caspian.

My first job was ...

Star Wars when I was eleven years old. That was mind-blowing. I played Wicket the Ewok. Mark Hamill (who played Luke Skywalker) bought me all the toys I could have wished for, and Carie Fisher (Princess Leia) always had milk and cookies waiting for me when I took my head off, because she was worried about me in my heavy costume.

My favourite food is ...

Chocolate is the first thing that came into my head. I suppose I shouldn’t give thought to it and say something like green vegetables. I like chocolate with nuts, but don’t like flavoured chocolate like mint.

The question I am asked most often is ...

Warwick in a scene from 'ShortFellas', dressed for a bank robbery with a stocking on his head, and holding a handgun
Well, I thought it would be "How tall are you?". People ask tall people all the time, but not short people. They must think that tall people have lots of inches to go around so won’t mind, whereas the short person doesn’t have enough inches. Actually, the question I get asked most often is ... what is Val Kilmer like?

Being a ShortFella is ...

Like having a licence to play cops and robbers as an adult.
Warwick has just shot a trailer for a movie called ShortFellas, which hasn’t even been filmed yet. It’s about a group of short people who rob banks in Newcastle, and we reckon it’s going to be a surefire hit. See it for yourself on the movie's website.
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