Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Actor known for a varied career spanning Hollywood blockbusters, TV sitcoms, documentaries, horror movies, and more, starting at age 11.
On the island
Eight records
Main Title Theme (from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi)
Well this is a very important piece of music to me, it is the theme from Star Wars, and I started off as a Star Wars fan in nineteen seventy seven. Going to see the film had a huge impact on me as a seven year old. At that point I didn't know it was going to become a huge part of my life and career, and shapes everything I still do to this day.
I remember listening to this next track on a little record player, and it was one of those where the turntable sat on top of the speaker and it had a lid, and it was like a little suitcase, really. And the only record that I had on this was When You Are a King by White Plains. It's quite a melancholy kind of depressing song in a way, but I imagined myself being this kingly kind of character one day as I listened to this song, Somebody Very Important.
He really provided the soundtrack to my childhood. I was very fortunate to meet him at a chat show that I did in France in 1988 and I did tell him at the time, I said, I love your music and he was very flattered. And I said, I use it on all of my home movies, my short films that I make. And he looked a bit concerned at first because of copyright reasons, but I explained that they were not for commercial use and he was delighted.
This is a track that has significance for me from the time that I was filming Willow in 1987. In the movie, Willow, my character, has a best friend called Migosh, played by David Steinberg, who sadly passed away some years ago. But David and I really had a great relationship off-screen as well, and we both looked out for each other. Lean on Me by Club Nouveau was in the charts at the time, and it kind of became our anthem. I remember singing along to this with David on our way to set. Brings back great memories.
It was the song that we danced the first dance to at our wedding as well. It just sums up our relationship. It's a groovy kind of love by Phil Collins.
This is a track that really evokes a lot of emotion in me because doing my work that I do I often have to leave home, go and work away for quite extended periods of time and miss the family terribly. So Every Time You Go Away by Paul Young kind of makes me sad, but at the same time, sums up feelings when you have to leave those nearest and dearest to you.
Main Title Theme (from Monsters)Favourite
John Hopkins is my favorite musician. He is brilliant. He was a child prodigy on the piano. To me, I can escape. I can listen to his music and become infinitely more creative. If I'm writing, I'll listen to John Hopkins' music and be able to write so much better than I could without it. So the track we're going to hear is the main title theme from the film Monsters.
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life
This track really would be the theme tune to my life, I think. But it has extra significance to me because I was very fortunate to be cast in the West End run of Spamalot a few years ago. And I played Patsy, and this song was one of my numbers in the show. And I've since become very good friends with Eric Idle, who wrote this song, who originally performed it, who you'll hear perform it now in The Life of Brian. It's always look on the bright side of life.
In conversation
Presenter asks
1:57Those parts take a long time in the make-up chair. How are you with that sort of stuff? Are you restless for those four hours before you get on set?
Normally those four hours start at about four o'clock in the morning, so I'm not particularly awake at that time. So I do nod off and it's a weird experience because you go to sleep looking like yourself and wake up looking like someone else.
Presenter asks
4:23Your parents weren't in show business, so how on earth did you learn the part?
Well, I've got radio to thank for my career. My grandmother was at home in her kitchen. And she had the radio on, as she always did. And an announcement came on from Lucasfilm, who makes Star Wars, and it said we're looking for short people to play Ewoks in the next instalment of Star Wars. She heard the word Star Wars and she heard the word short people, and she didn't immediately tell my mum about this because she was worried that she might offend her by saying they need short people and I thought of Warwick, so she kind of held on to this information for a couple of days and eventually she did call my mum, who immediately called the studios, and they said, Well, we've got everyone we need. We were inundated with calls. I really to this day don't know what my mum said to them, but they agreed to meet me. And just a couple of weeks later, in the January of 1981, I found myself on the set of Return of the Jedi alongside my on-screen heroes, was mind-blowing for an eleven-year-old, honestly.
The keepsakes
The book
You know, I'm not a great reader of fiction. I never have been. I like factual books. And I'm thinking the Guinness Book of Records would give me plenty to kind of read. It's the kind of book you can pick up and put down.
The luxury
My luxury is a pencil and paper. I still want to be able to write things down, ideas, do little sketches, drawings. So yeah, it doesn't seem particularly luxurious, but I think that's the thing I would miss if I couldn't write things down.
Presenter asks
6:09Do you feel though at this stage in your career you have transcended that? Do you feel now that you get television and film roles because people think, well, Warwick Davis will be able to bring that to us, he will be able to portray that?
More and more so now, yes, absolutely. The work that I'm offered now scripts come through, and there's no mention in the script of this character being short, or any reason for him to be short. They are just interested in offering Warwick Davis, the actor, the part, which is lovely to be thought of in that way.
Presenter asks
10:20I took the liberty of saying in my introduction there that you walked in in perfect robust health today. Have you dealt with long-term health implications being born as a baby who was so ill in the beginning?
Oh, absolutely. There are over 200 different types of dwarfism, dwarfism being the umbrella term. And my reduced height is because of a condition called spondyloepiphysial dysplasia, which means the bone ends did not form correctly. But along with that, because of a cartilage issue, you can have problems with your eyesight, hearing, which didn't manifest in me. But I had talapes where both my feet were turned outwards and had to have corrective surgery and plasters and all sorts of things from like. … my joints are not great at all, so I sort of live in a world of fairly constant pain in my joints. And getting up in the morning, it takes me about half an hour to kind of really get moving. But yeah, constantly have pain. But you just learn to deal with it. I don't take painkillers or anything.
Presenter asks
21:15When you and Sam had been through all of that, it would seem to me that the decision to go on and have a third pregnancy must have been a momentous one between the two of you.
something in Sam was saying she wanted to do this. And fortunately by then we had the care of a very brilliant doctor called Professor Rodek at UCH, who was able to look at the child in the womb and do various tests that he had devised and things that would allow us to determine whether the baby had inherited my genes, Sam genes, or both, genetic conditions. And fortunately, Annabel had just inherited my condition. But it was touch and go for her. She was born straight to special care baby unit in Peterborough, was there for two months. You know, I certainly attribute her being a healthy nineteen-year-old now to the brilliant work the doctors and nurses did for her then is fantastic.
Presenter asks
29:27In terminology terms, where are we? What's acceptable? What's not?
Well, you know, that's also something that is individual preference sometimes as well. As somebody with dwarfism, I don't mind the term dwarf. I don't mind the term little person. That's my favourite, actually. Short person. But some people might not like being called a dwarf. They might not like little person. So it depends on the individual. But accepted terms are someone with dwarfism, a little person. There is a term which I've been trying to educate people about and mostly used by comedians after a cheap laugh, and that's the word midget. It is in America highly offensive and here is very offensive, and we're moving towards the highly offensive category. But really, at the end of the day, why do we have to label people? I have to constantly remind people, you know, even though I'm short, I still feel the same feelings. I have feelings of love, of hope, of passion. All of these things still exist within me, even though I'm much shorter than you are.
“you go to sleep looking like yourself and wake up looking like someone else.”
“I found myself on the set of Return of the Jedi alongside my on-screen heroes, was mind-blowing for an eleven-year-old, honestly.”
“They are just interested in offering Warwick Davis, the actor, the part, which is lovely to be thought of in that way.”
“we had a baby called Lloyd, and we had passed on both our conditions. It's called double dominance, and Lloyd only survived for nine days. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to deal with.”
“It's all about positivity, what you choose to listen to and accept. We don't choose to see prejudice, we don't choose to see people staring, pointing, laughing. We choose to see the good in society and the world.”
“I have to constantly remind people, you know, even though I'm short, I still feel the same feelings. I have feelings of love, of hope, of passion. All of these things still exist within me, even though I'm much shorter than you are.”