3ft Actress Stopped Growing At 5 Years Old | BORN DIFFERENT

HOLLYWOOD actress, Ali Chapman, was born with hypochondroplasia - a rare form of dwarfism - and stands at 3ft 8" tall, meaning she often gets mistaken for a being child and has even played children in movies. Ali was "about five years old" when she "stopped growing" and remembers "trying to blend in" at high school, as she wasn't "comfortable in my own skin at that time". When Ali started out on her career, she could never have imagined walking red carpets and regular nights out with A-list stars, but she now lives in Los Angeles and has forged a successful career in the TV and film industry. Her big break came when she replied to an advert posted online, seeking "a little person for a body double and a stand-in for a major motion picture". That film turned out to be the blockbuster I Am Legend, starring Will Smith in the lead role. Producers asked Ali to send in photographs of herself and she soon received news back that she had been selected to act as body double to Willow Smith - who was six years old at the time. Ali explained to Truly: "There are scenes where [Will Smith] is picking his daughter up. She would come out of the scene and would be replaced by me... I'd be cheek-to-cheek with him... So that was pretty cool!" Since that "life-changing" experience, Ali has appeared in numerous TV and film roles, but many of those have been "character roles, a lot of costume work". She has played elves and leprechauns and feels she has been "pigeon-holed for those types of roles". Ali's aim is now to play her part in pushing Hollywood to cast little people in roles that could just as easily be played by an actor of average height. And after her appearance in an episode of Better Things - as a character who just happened to be a little person - Ali is on her way to achieving that goal. She told Truly: "You don't have to just have little people be these creatures... At the end of the day we are people with dignity, we are people that are just trying to make it just like everyone else."

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