Actors Are Lying About Their Heights and James Gunn Is Not Happy

It is incredibly hard and frustrating to become an actor in Hollywood. Not only do you have to compete for roles with hundreds of people, but you also can be eliminated for physical characteristics. It's really a crap shoot. 

That's led many actors to lie about their appearance on casting listings. This includes their heights. They usually say they're taller, in order to be considered for more roles. This leads to longer casting processes, as people are brought in and examined, vetted, and so forth. 

Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad director James Gunn recently took to Twitter to lament these lies. 

Gunn's argument is that lying about your height loses you as many jobs as you think it gets you. It also can get you flagged to not bring in later. Many times directors have a vision in their heads about how big or how small they want characters to be. Gunn used Guardians as a specific example, saying he wanted to get truly huge actors to fill roles, so he went with people like Lee Pace, Dave Bautista, and Chris Pratt, all of whom are tall in stature. 

While Gunn's explanation seemed innocuous and well-intentioned, it rubbed actor Anson Mount the wrong way, who argued that actor height was part of sexism, masculinity, and male domination in the industry. 

While I think there are lots of conversations that need to be had about sexism and male dominance in Hollywood, this might be taking the argument a little far. As some commentators pointed out, Tom Cruise is short in stature and has had a fine career, although we should note he is frequently cast across from actresses who appear (through the magic of movies) smaller than he is. That is, outside of Eyes Wide Shut, where he played opposite of his then-wife, Nicole Kidman, who is much taller than the actor. 

Gunn respectfully answered and said all his casting decisions had to do with storytelling. 

What do you think of this ongoing debate? 

Let us know in the comments.