David Pain will be a role model for short people

At Grünerløkka, a boy cautiously approaches and asks for a selfie.

David Pain, dressed for the occasion in a national team jersey, willingly stands up.

He is a familiar face from several new series that focus on short people.

In “Gigantene”, which is now broadcast on NRK, he is in hard training as part of Norway’s new national team for short stature. Here he is the only one who has turned 50, and he cracks jokes about his bad shape and growing belly.

He is also in the comedy series “Føkkings Fladseth” on TV 2, where he is almost exposed to “dwarf throwing”.

But he is critical of the NRK success “Gauteshow”.

“Giant Dwarf”

David Pain and his wife Bodil Anshus complete each other’s sentences when they talk about how they met. He had made a name for himself in Britain as a director. She was a design student from Norway.

She didn’t think much of the fact that he was shorter than normal, but highlights completely different things.

– He showed me London, says Bodil.

– We met through our love for theatre, says David.

Then there was the unusual thing, that he is 1.42 and has achondroplasia, the most common form of short stature. She is within the normal height of 1.60. But the difference is not really very big, they point out.

– I call myself a “giant dwarf”. I have the characteristic appearance of a short person, but I am one of the bigger ones.

– When he sits, he looks taller than me. People don’t notice it until we get up, says Bodil.

“Game of Thrones” role model

David highlights famous people who he believes have contributed to normalizing love where only one is short.

One of them is the 1.35 meter tall Peter Dinklage from the series “Game of Thrones”, who has a wife who is 1.68.

– Yes, it was difficult to get a girlfriend in my teens. But I had friends of normal height, and it was difficult for them too, says David.

– If I had met someone who was short and liked her, it would have been her. But it was Bodil I met.

He believes that there will be more acceptance of this and that a new generation will see past the superficial.

– But this is probably still a thing, adds Bodil.

– Before a job interview, you don’t know whether you should say that you are short or not.

– Some people are very surprised and don’t know what to say, or assume that I will have a lot of sick leave. But my boss says he has usually forgotten that I am different in some way, says Pain, who today works with IT at the music company Tidal.

– Put me out

Pain hopes his openness will help Norway’s approximately 500 short people.

The couple has two children. One of them, 15-year-old Odin, is also short.

– We knew there was a 50 percent probability that we would get someone like me. It still put me off.

David says that he was not seen as someone who could become an actor when he grew up in the UK.

– At a careers evening, a teacher said that if I wanted to become an actor I should join a circus. I don’t think they meant to make fun of me. It was just the way it was.

– Then there was a director who said they wanted me in and celebrate difference. It changed my whole way of looking at it.

Being persecuted

When he walks the streets with his son, people often take pictures.

– Good people in Norway look at me once, and then they look away. But I am often persecuted. People follow me with cameras and take pictures, especially if there are several of us. It happens when I’m out with my son.

In “Gigantene”, he becomes part of a national team for short people who are training to take part in the World Cup. Former national team player Ole Martin Årst drives them through a tough training schedule.

Pain himself is worried about his health.

He has to train many times a week to keep his aging body in check. He quickly becomes out of breath and has to walk four times more steps than others.

But he is there to encourage others his age to exercise and get some fresh air.

Towards “Gauteshow”

The former TV director is disappointed with how NRK treats the subject of short stature in the success “Gauteshow”.

Here, then Minister of State Sandra Borch (Sp) is a guest of the presenters Gaute Berg Næss and Snorre Monsson. The episode was criticized for contributing to bullying in the school yard.

Pain says that the actors in The “Gigantene” had video conversations with the management of NRK ahead of the launch, because of “Gauteshow”.

– Many of us were quite angry at how our type was portrayed. How can NRK on the one hand say they help small people and on the other hand make this up?

In the episode, the presenters comment that Sandra Borch is the first “tame dwarf” they have met.

They pretend to have found her bag, which is a satchel for children. They pull out a condom and say it’s her rain poncho and that a sock is Borch’s sleeping bag.

– She did not react to the jokes. If they had put in someone else who took back, it could have been better. There must be justice in it for the humor to be good, Pain believes.

Butcher NRK: – Gets the shit

– We are idiots

He believes “Gauteshow” chose the wrong person for the role of short.

The episode where they joked about the Sami and indigenous people was better, he believes. Here he believes the artist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen managed to take back and make the presenters look stupid.

– Sandra Borch is a wonderful lady who has meant a lot to short people, but she is not very involved in our environment. The series works when the hosts look like idiots. But they’ve turned it around and make it look like we’re idiots, says Pain.

– I don’t think she knew what to expect. Borch became a politician and an authority in the series and might not be able to take it back, says his wife Bodil.

Bodil thinks the program was painful to show to his son and was not prepared for what it would be like.

– It wasn’t ironic enough, I wouldn’t let 15-year-olds see it.

– Many will probably object that I do not understand the humor, that I am 50 years old and that to criticize this is to censor and cancel. But comedy has to have a cleverness and flair. Now it’s bullying.

Paying homage to TV 2 series

In the series “Føkkings Fladseth” on TV 2, various taboos are also tested, and Pain is in one of the roles. In one of the scenes, he is about to be subjected to “dwarf throwing” in a bachelor party.

Comedian Henrik Fladseth and his script consultants sought out the short stature community to hear how they should carry out such a sketch. Pain himself contributed with script help.

– In that story, short people are not made fun of, but the hen party that engages in the midget toss. I realized that it would not portray us in a bad light, but rather ridicule this madness in society.

David was also worried about the portrayal in the series about the national football team.

– There were some who saw the first episode and were worried whether we put little people in a bad light. We had a goalkeeper who was afraid of the ball. Many of us couldn’t run, and we weren’t focused, he says.

But the sometimes unmotivated team gradually becomes serious.

– There are many people who come out on the street and thank them for the series. I hope we show that these people make it happen and are fully capable of getting good jobs and achieving goals.