I Want That Midget!
So it all finished last night. And Anglofritz was there. The chameleon found a new leaf to blend itself with. We were a junkie for a day, feeding off light and air-conditioned atmosphere and the dust floating in the darkness.
And the last movie of the week was Find Me Guilty, a low-budget movie directed by Sidney Lumet, and sporting, of all people, Vin Diesel in the central role of Joe DiNorscio, who’s a Mafioso on trial and turns into an improbable Christ figure by the end. The film is a veritable celebration of Italian America, and could be a Lars Von Trier spoof.
But here’s the thing – there’s a dwarf in it. A dwarf actor that is, the very brilliant Peter Dinklage. All the characters in the movie are at least partially based on real people – and the Dinklage plays the role of the leading defence lawyer, who in real life wasn’t a dwarf. And during the Q and A after last night’s show it was revealed that Sidney Lumet actually did call “I want that midget!” in a high voice and, seeing as he was the most important person there, and that the producers (one of whom had been a New York policeman for fifteen years) were very happy to fulfil the man’s wish.
I think I went off the point there a little – but he it is, and it is in the form of question – is this the first time a dwarf has been cast for a reason other than his being a dwarf?