Patricia Arquette in Tiptoes
Tiptoes was at Sundance in 2004, so it is an old movie, but I thought this review by The Gimp Parade was fascinating:
…imagine a film about an engaged couple where the woman gets pregnant but the man hasn’t yet told her that dwarfism runs in his family. His twin brother is a dwarf, played in all seriousness by a well-known 5′10″ actor.
Patricia Arquette plays the lover of a little person who is played by an actual little person, but all other major characters who are playing little people are not actually affected by dwarfism. How did I miss that 3 years ago??
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4 opinions for Patricia Arquette in Tiptoes
Betty
Jun 1, 2007 at 12:32 pm
OK, so did the 5′10″ actor play it for laughs or play it for serious? Was it done with CGI? Did the Little People of America protest because they didn’t use little people to play little people?
Kay
Jun 1, 2007 at 1:42 pm
The 5′10″ actor was Gary Oldman, and it was not for laughs — moviegoers are supposed to accept him as a dwarf in the film. I think mostly he just walked on his knees with his feet strapped up under his pants. He looked pretty lumpy all the time. Sometimes, I expect they used CGI or removed his lower legs using computer technology or blue screen or something.
And there were lots of little people in the film. It’s just that none of them got to play a central role. Peter Dinklage, who is maybe the best-known dwarf actor today, did have a supporting role. I don’t know if there were protests. I didn’t see any mention of any when i researched online a little to write the review.
Katelyn
Jun 1, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Kay,
Thanks for the additional information. Stuff like this really fascinates me.
Betty
Jun 1, 2007 at 3:03 pm
Thanks for that info Kay!
That subject would be of concern, or could be to someone in that situation.
On the show on TLC, Little People, Big World, they follow the real life adventures of a family whose parents are both little people, but only 1 of their 4 children is little like them. He (little person son has a twin who is normal size) has faced numerous surgeries to correct problems - currently they are doing surgery on one of his legs to straighten it because it is so bowed. Both of the parents’ parents are normal size and they have normal size brothers and sisters. The family faces all the same problems everyone else does in addition to having to adapt to a world made for tall people. Like the mom says, “I do everything everyone else does, I just have to do them in a different way.”
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