'Jordan Prentice is the friggin' Tom Hanks of diminutive actors, right behind Peter Dinklage, who is the Sir Lawrence Olivier of tiny thespians.'
In An Elevator
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| In Bruges (2008) |
For anyone who feels they are different, seeing themselves on television or on the big screen can be an incredible experience. Even if they may think otherwise however, Hollywood is sill not great at making and promoting movies that don't star white, usually good looking men. For a little person, the struggle for decent roles can be that much more of a challenge. Sure last year there were a couple of versions of Snow White requiring seven dwarfs and there is sometimes the little person role, usually as the brunt of silly jokes, in the odd teenage comedy, but truly great characters can be few and far between.
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| An Insignificant Harvey (2011) |
Thankfully that is beginning to change a little. Peter Dinklage is breaking ground on
Game Of Thrones, but there is another actor who recently grabbed my attention. A month or so ago, I read the description of a movie that piqued my interest. I had never heard of
An Insignificant Harvey, but the title, and that description had me programming the DVR. It is odd for me to love a movie from the first second or two, but with this film I did. Writer and director Jeff Kopas took me instantly back to my childhood, and the opening scene had me not just seeing, but feeling like I was transported back to the early 80's and the chill of the long winters I experienced as a child. Not the December winters with holly and bright lights, but the late January and February winters when the cold, snow and wind chill was without a holiday to polish it up.
A janitor at a small town ski resort, who also happens to be a little person, has his life dramatically change when he finds a stray husky and falls for an exotic dancer.
Not sure if the description above grabbed you, but after reading it, I knew I found a movie I would love. In
An Insignificant Harvey, actor Jordan Prentice play that janitor Harvey, and as in the description, Harvey's size is not really an issue or part of the plot. It certainly is not important to Inca, the husky who is most concerned about finding an owner, someone to love and take care of her. The package that person comes in is really not relevant. Harvey has been a bit beaten down by life, a childhood in an orphanage, no family and few people around to support him.
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| Mirror Mirror 2012 |
I loved the movie and Jordan's performance. The actor didn't try to make Harvey overly likable, instead channeled his life experiences through each scene and each moment. You might not always like Harvey, but he is hard not to love. As a viewer, my relationship with the character was sort of parallel with Harvey's with Inca. You may not really want to, but somehow you feel for and want to give him a hand. The film is slow at times, a focus on character and small moments, so I know it may not be everyone's cup of tea. If however, the brief description above somehow grabbed your imagination like it did mine, it might be a film to seek out.
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| American Pie Presents The Naked Mile (2006) |
Jordan Prentice got a crash course in the ups and downs of the movie business with his first motion picture role as one of the Howard T Duck's in the 1986 high profile bomb
Howard The Duck. Since then he has worked steadily, sometimes playing the typical roles I described above. Prentice was Napoleon, a dwarf in last years
Mirror Mirror and played Rock, the brunt of many jokes in the
American Pie teen flicks
Beta House and T
he Naked Mile. In addition however, Prentice has worked steadily in both movies and on television and has well received notices for his work in both including
In Bruges with Colin Farrell.
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