Just Fame got a chance to interview Author Lizzie Martinez in regard to her books The Short Audition, Beautifully Unkept Girl and Blinded by Bittersweet Symphony.
Q. Welcome to Just Fame! Hope you’re doing well. Please tell us about your book “The Short Audition.”
Lizzie: Thanks so much for having me. All is well here, and I hope all is well for you all as well. Of course, “The Short Audition” is a satirical look at what it takes for little people to get into show business/entertainment business. I combined a lot of my experiences from age 11 until now at what I’ve gone through and each circumstance is based on true events. I wanted to make the book a comedy but at the same time make a point on how unrealistic it is for little people to actually work and get into film. This comic book was first written as a script but I decided to write it as a comic as well, I thought the visuals would be entertaining in a comic but get the point across.
Q. What inspired you to write this book?
Lizzie: There are so few little people that are acting in the business. If you’re in then YOU’RE IN and if you’re not well… good luck. I have reached out to agencies from LA, NY, TX, Chicago, Miami and so on to try to find an agent and each were just totally blunt/frank with me. They all came to this conclusion “Little people have a better chance out jumping out of a birthday cake instead of getting in films because agents have no clue how to showcase their small statured talent. Some agents will blame their short statured client for not getting work so they can make money, but short people cannot apply for rolls that always seem to be “…Seeking 5’0+, attractive (beauty is in the eye of the beholder when it comes to what a casting call is seeking for ATTRACTIVE)…” So, the problem always starts will the height. We aren’t that height and so we can’t apply for a role that doesn’t work for us. I had an agent tell me to apply and I did. I got called in and chewed out for going to a casting call when I didn’t fit any of the requirements asked for and was reprimanded by my agent for not doing enough. Yet, when there is a role for little people under 4’ like myself, you have people over 5’0+ come in and it’s for some reason totally acceptable. So that is why I wrote this book. There isn’t enough inclusivity for us little people and reusing the same little people in films is great for them because they can provide for their families, but us other little people would love to do the same thing. Where is a leading lady little person that other little people can look up that isn’t the butt of a joke in films?
Q. Let’s talk about your other book. What can readers expect in your book “Beautifully Unkept Girl.”
Lizzie: I’m so glad that you asked about this book. “Beautifully Unkept Girl” is based on fiction and nonfiction. So the incidents in this book has truly happened to me and I needed an outlet so I’ve been working on this book for over a year and a half. I wanted to tell a story, at least that it has affected me in my situations I’ve been in on what happens to a woman who gets constantly used over and over. She’s treated as she’s not good enough based on her height. For instance one of the TRUTHS in the book was me being bet on. This guy I really liked I thought was really into me. His friends told him they’d give him $200 if he could convince me he really liked me and was into me and he wanted to date me. He did all that and the following day I went to school and couldn’t figure out why I was being laughed and stared at. Finally, some of the fellow students made fun of me and mocked me for thinking the boy really liked me. I was just a joke, a freak, worthless, useless and then he came up to me and showed me the money was given and thanked me for helping him make some money. I’ve also been played and said told I needed to be used and nothing more. I’ve been called a freak more often than not and to be told by others that they wanted to mark off their bucket list being with a little person. So I began writing and made my character Alexandra Smith become someone important and she would do to men what was done to her. She begins to fall for one of her security and another man who want to bring her from the world and each other. In the end she will overcome what has happened to her or be destroyed by what ends up happening making her more vicious than anyone could realize
Q. Your book “Blinded by Bittersweet Symphony” seems intriguing too! Please tell us about this book.
Lizzie: I love poetry so this would be my 2nd poetry book I’ve completed. This is a compilation of the hurt, pain, loss, bitterness, being cheated on, affairs, death, denial, lies, being used, and so much more of different situations I’ve been in and some I’ve seen by complete strangers. I’ve had so many reasons to write and so many people who have accused me of things I’ve not done, and I strung it all into a beautiful piece of emotions in a book. I wanted others who may be going through the same thing to know they are not alone. Someone does understand.
Q. What’s next? Which book and projects are you working on now?
Lizzie: I’m working on the sequel to Beautifully Unkept Girl called “Beautifully Twisted”, I also am working on another poetry book called “Surrendering: Lost in Emotions”, I will be directing a short film and working on a 4-part series comic book called The Shrew which you can find on FB/theshew2020. Issue #1 is already completed. I have many more things I’m looking forward to in the near future and trying to stay on top of as much as I can.
Q. Finally, as we ask all our guests on Just Fame, do you have any closing thoughts that you would like to share with the world and our readers?
Lizzie: I want your readers, no matter where you are, to not give up on your dreams. There is only one of you. Never try to be someone else. Never try to wish you were just as good as someone else. We need people who are different in the world. Your talents were given to you for a reason. Only YOU have those certain gifts. Sure, people may come close to doing something to like you, but they can’t do anything EXACTLY like you. And if no one has told you yesterday, today or ever, I want you to know I AM SO PROUD OF YOU and ALL you’ve accomplished. Keep your chin up and do what you do best. BE YOU and BE PROUD of who YOU are. There is no one else like you.
About the Author: Lizzie Martinez is a little person who stands only 3’ 7” and is the only little person in her family. She began writing at a young age and had some of her poetry placed in the National Library of Congress when she lived in Michigan. Lizzie flourished in her writing career and wrote a bio for Chat Magazine UK and around the same time had her first book “Capturing Silence: Silenced Poetry” published. As of these last few years, Lizzie has begun writing scripts and became a scriptwriter for Glass Asylum Productions until the recent death of the director and founder of the company. She continues to write her own material. Lizzie found it hard for little people to break into the film industry. No one was willing to give her a chance, and big named agencies would tell her unless she was a well-known actor, they weren’t trying to put an unknown little person in the industry. She had an agent at one point who dropped her because she felt Lizzie wasn’t doing enough to get into the industry but advised her to write. So that is exactly what she did. Lizzie wrote “The Short Audition” which is on Amazon. A satirical take of what it’s been like from the beginning to the end of an audition for her over the years. It’s not as easy as agents think it is for little people.
All her books are available on Amazon!