Having learned nothing from Freaks, the 1932 horror film featuring real carnival performers that destroyed director Tod Browning’s career, creator Ryan Murphy has cast the world’s shortest woman in American Horror Story: Freak Show. The 20-year-old Jyoti Amge stands just over 2 feet tall and holds the title of “World’s Shortest Woman” in both the Guinness and Limca books of world records. Amge began her career in her native India, where she parlayed her small stature into both a documentary about her life and a run on a popular, Big Brother-esque reality show. Murphy announced Amge’s casting in a tweet yesterday afternoon that showed her posing with series star Jessica Lange:
Jessica and our newest cast member Jyoti Amge…the world’s smallest woman. pic.twitter.com/SIPhd4V0pQ
— Ryan Murphy (@MrRPMurphy) August 13, 2014
Murphy has included characters with genetic anomalies on American Horror Story before (Who could forget Pepper from season two?), but this is his first foray into the extremely sensitive territory of actual people who can’t take the makeup off when shooting ends. But honestly, if anything is going to bring Murphy down, it’s going to be his messy storylines, not his stunt casting.