# Little Person Actors: Is it demeaning to play leprechauns? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 3, 2014, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836 "2014-01-03T23:27:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836/41 "2014-01-10T17:06:42Z")
I’ve known dwarves with very average jobs (Ones a mechanic)who get movie parts because of their height in between their day jobs and they were glad of it . (Though moaned about the money ) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836/42 "2014-01-10T23:19:56Z")
True story: There used to be a bar in the Patpong red-light area called Cleopatra. It was actually in the next lane over, Patpong 2, but part of the same area. Like many bars, it put on “special shows.” For a while they featured a normal-sized lady and a male dwarf. She was hot! She’d dance around some to begin with. But then out came the dwarf. Turns out the lady was a babysitter. And the dwarf was the baby – diaper, bonnet, pacifier, the whole outfit. Baby was a bad boy, a _very bad boy_. He needed a spanking. Then one thing led to another, and you can imagine how it finally ended. Demeaning? Well, maybe. But I could imagine him sitting around with his friends, knocking back a few brews, then pointing at the lady as she walks by and saying: “I get to tap _that_ every night.” ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836/43 "2014-01-11T07:27:26Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I imagine that _many_ character actors in Hollywood are typecast; ugly man, obese woman, redneck man, “gangster-looking”, etc. You _can_ see the bigotry in considering an entire minority to be a “character”, right? This would be like considering “Black” or “woman” to be a character trait (which Hollywood does somewhat do, actually) - I mean, you do get ugly little people. You get obese ones, redneck ones, gangster-looking ones - also lesbian ones (hell, _Oscar-winning_ lesbian ones), Black ones, funny ones - even good-looking leading man/woman types (like Dinklage or Meredith Eaton(_rowr_)). To reduce all of that to “dwarf” as a character trait is bigotry, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836/44 "2014-01-11T08:34:49Z")
By the time A Song of Ice and Fire gets to the point that GoT is at (after Blackwater, so CoK), Tyrion’s face is mangled to hell, and before that he is described as pretty ugly. Obviously that aspect was changed when they hired Peter Dinklage. But I want to say he was not hired through a casting call but personally, because he’s the shit (\I heard about him before **you** did!\). ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836/45 "2014-01-11T10:19:19Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > The most recent role I saw Warwick Davis in was playing the emperor of a galaxy. Who just happened to be very short. He can and does get parts other than that of a leprechaun. Being a leprechaun bought him enough name recognition he can use it to get other parts. Is that entirely a bad thing? > > I only wish he could get more of them, I do like him as an actor, particularly when he’s not buried latex. As an aside, a side benefit of his acting career was being hugged by Princess Leia. When he was 11. [http://cloud.lomography.com/570/724/71/ebfd0a4c5d54eec8ee5692e2dd16224fe57fd4.jpg](http://cloud.lomography.com/570/724/71/ebfd0a4c5d54eec8ee5692e2dd16224fe57fd4.jpg) He played an Ewok in the Empire Strikes Back, which I hadn’t realised. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836/46 "2014-01-11T12:59:42Z")
Really? Wicket (who is pretty much _the_ Ewok - one of the most important Ewoks in Empire, and the main character in all the Ewok spinoffs) is the primary role I know Davis for. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836/47 "2014-01-11T20:58:10Z")
> [@williambaskerville](#): > > As an aside, a side benefit of his acting career was being hugged by Princess Leia. When he was 11. > > [http://cloud.lomography.com/570/724/71/ebfd0a4c5d54eec8ee5692e2dd16224fe57fd4.jpg](http://cloud.lomography.com/570/724/71/ebfd0a4c5d54eec8ee5692e2dd16224fe57fd4.jpg) > > He played an Ewok in the Empire Strikes Back, which I hadn’t realised. I presume you mean Return of the Jedi? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/little-person-actors-is-it-demeaning-to-play-leprechauns/677836.md?page=2)