the other thing you talk about and i've just seen it in a few interviews is your height being something you've always contended with and it's you know it's interesting because um a lot of short men want to be tall men and hear a tall man say yeah speak as if you'd rather be a little bit shorter is quite surprising well i'm six foot seven which is too much is the truth uh and you know it makes you extraordinary look my eyesight is not people can't see that right okay so that's mine and that's internalized and you know i deal with that how i want to my height is something that people can always see and i find it i find it fascinating again this world of social media when people talk about microaggressions and stuff that you must have seen your entire life which is if you're different in any way right you're reminded of it non-stop yeah mostly you know people that are not being cruel sometimes they are now i have a height so i'm not being discriminated against because of my height right it's not you know i'm not it's not costing me anything but i do know that every single day of my life i'm reminded of it every single day but just non-stop and so i know that to be a person of color to be differently gendered to be all of these things i know that the microaggressions i get you're getting non-stop every day of your life and in a much more harmful ways i've always hopefully really really understood the idea of microaggressions and that idea that please i hear this every single day even if you're trying to be kind you know if you see somebody is different they do not need to be told they do not need it pointed out every single day because everyone told them their entire life that they different you know and i know you just thinking yeah but it just me you think yeah but it just you and five other people every single day forever And I had that with my height forever and ever and ever I been incredibly self And most people are perfectly nice Some people are horrible because some people – it's a really good radar for what people are like. I call it a C-word radar sometimes. It's being different in any way, which perhaps you'll agree with, which is so many people are sort of lovely on chat. But then a couple of times a day, there's just someone who wants to shout at you out of a window or just wants to make you feel small, ironically.
That's what they want to do. And you just think, why? well someone's a bit different to you and you've got to shout something make yourself a bit better you know and so being different in any way whatsoever i think really teaches you about people and about the hate that's out there and about the unhappiness that's out there because that's where it all comes from and so being tall yeah has taught me about microaggressions and has made me try and fight for people who are different and has made me just say to people if someone is different right just talk to them normally you don't need to it's we never had the word but sometimes i'll tweet something about oh i love this film or i went to see this gig blah blah blah and like 10 people go glad i wasn't behind you and you know what it's a perfectly harmless joke might perfectly harm this I get it, I understand why people do it but I get it every single time someone does it so just think for one second has this guy ever heard this before? has he heard this before?
is it a fun thing to say to him? because to me if I go to a gig or a cinema it's a nightmare because I don't want to be in front of anyone I go out of my way to be as far back as possible which when you can't see means it impossible or you know sit on the island I take it seriously and every single time they say it and that just a tiny example but recently people say that they saying oh you mustn body shame i thought well that interesting because body shaming is sort of something that um you know certain people say that oh that a snowflake talking about body shaming but actually it really i think yeah that's what you're doing that's what people have done to me for the last 30 years they body shamed me like because they've talked about my stature and i felt ashamed that's body shaming i mean that's what that is i've never thought of it i just was embarrassed i just made me feel shy maybe not want to go out but it's body shaming and actually having it named you just think oh good for you and it's the younger generation you do it they're so great and they're just saying come on that's body shaming you think oh that's such a such a lovely sort of thing to have in my armory they're going to go yeah that's exactly what you're doing uh and again 90 of people they mean nothing by it and i get it but it's just boring and 10 of people it's you just think oh you're very unpleasant i am i never i'm so glad to hear that because it's really changed my perspective because um and i mean genuinely mean that like i wouldn't sit here and just go yeah i agree i genuinely have learned something yeah and um and i think i think it's i think it's because of how i phrase the question at the start in the sense that a lot of people feel a ton of shame for being slightly shorter which is again it's a it's a point of being different. And I've never heard, in my experience, someone say, but it's completely right, that wherever they go, they must be continually reminded of the fact that they're taller than everybody and how that might make them feel. When did that first start happening in your life?
Well, sort of in my teenage years. I was sort of very tall from about 17 probably I was always tall but kind of nice oh you the tallest in your class and that you know which is quite a fun thing to be You know that what you want you want to be 6 right that what you know anyone who 5 or 6 we all want to be 6 uh and yes i was sort of 17 18 when i was off to university which again is very you know so i sort of this guy who is much too tall and is awkward about being tall who can't see anything and he's quite an introvert anyway uh and so and i sort of had this full self anyway from when he was nine years old and his dad left and everything's okay um so you know there's a real sort of storm of things brewing there as i say all of which have brought me good things in the end but uh you know i think um meant that you know i didn't i didn't live the life i should have done for many years because i was hiding away from things some things i have to hide away from because with my eyesight i just can't it's not safe for me to do various things and something's just my height and sort of thing i'm gonna look stupid oh i'm gonna look stupid going on a roller coaster thing and also what if i cut what if my legs don't fit on that and you know just silly silly little things and you know the world will not what is not shy and letting you know that you're weird you know that there's something weird about you and certainly that's what i felt i felt weird and of course as soon as you feel weird you have to sort of you know you live with it and your behavior sort of changes and you're going to go no i am a weird person so i have to hide that away or explain away why i'm weird you know i'm very grateful that the one thing i always had was i was good with words i was able to put things into words i was always able to make people laugh uh and so i for years i've been able to paper over the cracks of all of that because i had all this stuff but i knew that i could sit around and make people laugh and i knew i could say the right things to people and so i sort of i got away with it for years and years and years it's the truth