Big in the movies

Verne Troyer was the bookies’ favourite on Celebrity Big Brother and is hailed by fellow Hollywood stars as a “great comic actor”. But, he tells Cathy Reay, he’s immune to allegations of cuteness

"I never expected to win,” says Verne Troyer. It’s a month after the dust has settled but the public are still asking him – “why didn’t you win Celebrity Big Brother?”

The short-statured American actor was the fourth from last housemate to get booted out of the game show house in January to a sea of shocked faces.

Internationally adored for playing the character ‘Mini Me’ in two of the Austin Powers films, Verne was consistently the bookmakers’ favourite throughout the competition, moving up from odds of 1/2 to 2/5 in his last week in the house.

But Verne told Disability Now that he wasn’t fazed by the result. Because he was cut off from communication in Big Brother, he had no idea how the public would react to him: “I don’t mind, I mean, Ulrika [Johnson – the winning celebrity contestant] is a great person to have won.”

Viewers anticipated he would win because they were so publicly supportive of the actor, with many of them using internet message boards and social networking to express their fandom.

“He’s cuter than a box of sad little abandoned puppies”, said one user on popular entertainment website Digital Spy.

Another added: “As soon as I see Verne I just can’t help thinking ‘oh it’s a little baby man, how adorable!’”

Others criticised the seemingly condescending comments, claiming that if Verne was of average height, none of them would say he was “cute”.

One said: “Acting on those basic instincts that evolution has hardwired us with may sometimes be an initial reaction but we are not primitive anymore! To find an adult man cute because he has a disability that means he hasn’t grown to ‘normal’ size is patronising.”

Though the majority of his fans seemed to agree that it was cool Verne was representing, as they put it, the “little people”.

Verne started his career as a body double for a baby in the 1994 film Baby’s Day Out. He acted as a stuntman and behind-the-scenes in several other blockbusters, including Men In Black, before earning bit parts in the cult classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Instinct in the late 90s.

Mike Myers claims to have desperately wanted to cast the short-statured actor for a part in his new film Austin Powers and the rest, as they say, is history.

But despite becoming a household name, the 2’8” actor is bemused by the idea that he could be thought of as an ambassador for people with restricted growth: “That tag makes me feel very uncomfortable. It’s just strange that people would look to me for that kind of thing. I’m smaller than little people normally are anyway; they’re usually around the four foot mark, so it would be weird to be seen as a representative of them.

Some have attributed the fact that Verne lost the Big Brother competition to his actions in the final few days in the house. On one occasion, Big Brother asked some of the housemates to dress in bear costumes and eat honey from a pot. A still shot of Verne eating his honey immediately appeared online, prompting a flurry of comments saying how “comical” it was. For another task, Verne was asked to pretend that a baby doll was his former housemate, singer Mutya Buena.

He sweet-talked the doll, saying: “Hey, Mutya. I know you wanna leave, but before you go can you just save a spot in bed for me and I will give you some special loving. We don’t have to tell anyone else. Hey – do you want to ride my scooter?”, before kissing it vigorously.

Viewers again took to message boards and texted into Big Brother to express their opinion, quickly turning their backs on the film star, citing his behaviour as “disturbing”, “disgusting” and “wrong”.

“I was just being myself,” Verne laughs. “Some people have mentioned the ‘baby’ thing to me, saying that might be a reason I didn’t win, but whatever, I’m sure anyone else would have done the same. It wasn’t meant to be a baby anyway, it was my old roommate. It was just a bit of fun.”

Channel 4 was criticised for the large number of times housemates were required to dress up in costume to carry out a ‘task’ (ten times in three weeks) as it usually triggered controversy for Verne because some viewers found the way he looked amusing.

A Channel 4 spokesman denied that they had dressed up the housemates more often this year, stating: “Housemates dressing up in costumes has always been an integral part of many of the tasks set by Big Brother and is a popular element of the programme with viewers.”

Verne got involved in all the tasks, irrespective of the consequence, because he says he felt it important that he did everything everyone else was asked to do.

“I went into the house because I wanted to show people that I am independent. I live by myself, take care of myself, all these things that people don’t necessarily know I can do.”

Perhaps Verne felt he had something to prove given that his most well known role ‘Mini Me’ is so centred on jokes relating to his/the character’s impairment. “I’d definitely like to play roles that aren’t reliant on that.

I recently did a film called The Love Guru (pictured above), with Mike Myers [Austin Powers], where I played a hockey coach. Obviously that was a role that wasn’t built for a little person, but we did put some size-related jokes in just to make it funnier.”

Although the Austin Powers franchise was a commercial hit, Verne hasn’t had much other work since the last film in 2002. We asked him whether he hoped being part of Celebrity Big Brother would raise his profile: “People have approached me since I left the house, which is great.

I just want to keep doing what I am doing and hopefully get a few more [films] to work on. I can’t really say anything else but a lot of interest
has come from the UK and may mean that I get to spend a bit longer here in the summer.”

He adds: “I’ve loved being here and am looking forward to coming back.”

As for his British fans, Verne says he hasn’t had much opportunity to go out and meet them because he’s been so busy since he got out of the house. He insists he doesn’t mind getting recognised on the street, though: “I love meeting and talking to fans. I think it’s really important, as an actor, to give something back to the people that support your work.”

As for advice for anyone looking to get into acting, Verne says not to be discouraged by the shallow nature of the film industry.

“This industry is only as shallow as you make it. I don’t believe there’s anything I can’t do if someone [of average height] can do it – so long as it isn’t jumping out of an airplane!

“It is competitive but there’s no harm in trying to see where it can take you. It would be very optimistic to just expect work will come to you but determination will pay off.”

Verne certainly doesn’t seem to want to disappear off-screen anytime soon. After starring in numerous Hollywood hits, he’s made a name for himself not only as ‘Mini Me’ but as what his former co-star Mike Myers describes as a “great comedy actor”. And with Austin Powers 4 in the making and several other offers in the pipeline, life can’t be all bad can it?