Lisa Hammond in a recent production of ‘The Hanging Man’

At four feet tall, playing a fairytale heroine is a big challenge, Lisa Hammond tells critic. Not that that will stop her …

By Brian Logan in the [London] Times:

Lisa Hammond, considered one of the best and funniest actresses in England, is also one of the smallest. Her career has been dedicated to flouting expectations of the roles an actor her size might play. She’s now playing an unconventional Beauty in a stage production of Beauty and the Beast.

In an interview with the Times critic, Hammond talks about challenging expectations, the use of stereotypes in theater, and her rejection of roles in which she would portray “a height and not a character. To some people, you’re not a human and you aren’t an actor. You’re just a height. I’m not prepared to be that.”

Hammond is painted as an “idealist” who

continues the fight because “disabled actors are still where black and Asian actors were ten years ago. And for smallness, we are 20 years behind.”

See related post.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 22nd, 2007 at 1:26 pm and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, arts/music, dwarfism/little people, international, theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post