Actor Warwick Davis talks to Jane McGowan about Snow White, Star Wars and his latest role as game show host
Warwick Davis is undoubtedly one of the most in-demand performers in showbusiness. With a career spanning almost 40 years, the diminutive actor has won the hearts and minds of the British public with roles including Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, Willow Ufgood alongside Val Kilmer in Willow and Professor Flitwick in the blockbusting Harry Potter series.
But as if starring in some of cinema’s greatest film franchises were not enough, Davis is now busy adding the finishing touches to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – a pantomime in which he not only directs and stars as head dwarf Prof, but which he has also co-written – ahead of its arrival at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking this month.
“Yes, you could say I have a lot of responsibility to the audiences of Woking this year,” he chuckles. “The panto will have all the usual ingredients, but what I’m really trying to do is cram a West End show into a local theatre. I have asked for things that have never been asked for before – so I will wait with bated breath to see if we can pull it off.”
Davis is obviously a perfectionist, confessing that throughout the eight-week run he will be constantly dashing around backstage making adjustments to jokes or scenes.
“Even though I am performing myself, as a director there’s always one part of you that is monitoring the show,” he says. “So it’s slightly annoying for the cast. They’ll have to put up with me knocking on their dressing room doors going: ‘You know that scene you’ve just done… Well, I wonder if you could just…’”
Davis’s role as director will be even more important this year as he is working with his 17-year-old daughter, Annabelle, who is fast forging a name for herself in the acting world thanks to her role as Sasha in the award-winning CBBC drama The Dumping Ground.
“It’s lovely now, as she gets recognised when we’re out and about,” he says with obvious pride. “Her character is a bit of a rebel, but the kids really seem to respond to it, so that’s great.”
Davis was born in Epsom in 1970 with a rare genetic disorder called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita (SED). His parents were warned that their son might not survive, but the young Warwick went on not only to defy the medical profession, but to become the envy of boys everywhere when – at the tender age of 11 – he landed a role in George Lucas’s sci-fi epic Return of the Jedi.
As a child, says Davis, what he lacked in height he made up for in energy, and his parents sent him to the town’s Laine Theatre Arts school to try and channel some of his boisterousness into acting. It was around this time that his granny just happened to be listening to the radio when it was announced that Hollywood film producers were on the hunt for people under 4ft to appear in the new Star Wars film. She suggested that Warwick go along – and the rest, as they say, is history.
Since then the 3ft 6” actor has gone on to star in dozens of films and television shows and is currently visible in yet another guise: that of game show presenter in ITV1’s brand new daytime quiz, Tenable.
“It’s important to be diverse in your career,” he says. “And that’s something I haven’t had to worry about too much, as people keep giving me these opportunities. I don’t know why, but I’m delighted that they do.”
December also heralds the release of the Star Wars spin-off movie Rogue One, which sees Davis once more “return to a galaxy far, far away”. He is, of course, sworn to secrecy until its release and all he will say is that he is “very excited” about it.
Big screen aside, Davis is set to appear with Alan Davies in the Christmas special of BBC drama Jonathan Creek. And just in case you’re still afraid of missing him over the festive period, he will also pop up on BBC2 with Professor Brian Cox and Eric Idle in a star-studded comedy entitled The Entire Universe about the beginning of time.
Working with the best in the business is nothing new to Davis, of course. During a long and varied career his co-stars have ranged from Carrie Fisher – who fed him cookies while dressed in the infamous Return of the Jedi gold bikini – to Ricky Gervais, who created the BBC sitcom Life’s Too Short especially for him. Which, if nothing else, must earn him plenty of points in the cool dad stakes.
“Well, I think I’m a cool dad,” he laughs. “This job is just what I do and the kids have grown up with it.
My son Harrison was born in 2003 and until 2007 I was working on Harry Potter – I think he thought the Great Hall was my office. He assumed that hanging out with Professor Dumbledore in a trailer was normal.”
Davis met his wife Sam – who has a condition called achondroplasia, a more common cause of dwarfism – on the set of Willow and they have been happily married since 1991. However, the couple suffered early heartbreak when their son Lloyd died soon after he was born. And they were hit with tragedy once again when their second child, George, also lost his fight for life just weeks after birth. The actor has spoken openly about their grief and it’s apparent that he now cherishes every minute of family time at their Cambridgeshire home.
Although, with two members of the Davis clan busy in Woking, a restful family Christmas is looking a little unlikely this year.
“We usually try to have a very normal Christmas. Presents in the morning, a big, big lunch, board games in the afternoon and then a bit of telly in the evening,” says Davis.
And after two weeks of gruelling live performances, he will be ready to put his feet up for 24 hours at least, before hitting the boards once more on Boxing Day. Panto, he admits, is “exhausting”, but he insists that the audience experience is all that matters.
“When I’m doing a show I don’t think of the audience as 800 people, but as one person – whether it’s a child who has never been to a theatre before or a grown-up who has maybe saved up for this as a family treat. I deliver the show for that one person and make it as special as it can possibly be.”
What more could you ask?
Snow White will be running at Woking Theatre from December 10 to January 8, for tickets visit atgtickets.com
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