alloverthegaf:

alloverthegaf:

I’m aware of the real story behind the musical. I chose to enjoy the movie for what it was, and not for the real person it was representing, because I found the movie touching, and emotional, and inspirational. I see the fictional story as very separate to the real one. The real story I do not support, but the fictional one makes me happy and every time I listen to ‘This Is Me’ I get goosebumps like not many things give me.

I realise it’s the Big Debate right now about whether or not you’re allowed to enjoy problematic content without being a proper Asshole and I certainly don’t feel mature enough or educated enough to directly weigh in on that issue, but I feel confident in the fact that I can watch and appreciate the fictional version of a story that advocates good morals, love, and acceptance of oneself, without associating that with the real story of PT Barnum and deciding that he’s suddenly an awesome human being.

It’s possibly also worth mentioning that Keala Settle, a woman born in Hawaii and of Maori descent, played Lettie, the bearded woman, and began so camera-shy and self-conscious that even after incredible workshop performances of her singing Lettie’s lines, she was convinced she shouldn’t and wouldn’t be a part of the main movie. But she was so good at the role and the song that not only was she convinced to accept the part, she performed at the Oscars.

In this performance and then this interview with Graham Norton Keala admitted that after the movie was approved her director asked what it would take for to her to take on this role – this gorgeous, obviously shy but insanely talented woman – to play the role of the bearded lady. Keala replied with ‘a bottle of Jameson’, not actually thinking anything would come out of it, and the next day came to work to have her director offering exactly that.

It’s also not difficult in the slightest to hear the sheer amount of emotion she puts into every performance – recorded for the movie, for a TV interview, for a rehearsal, every time you hear her sing you hear her very emotions. It’s hard to listen to her song and not be moved by that.

The messages and themes of this movie – not the factual story behind it – have not only comforted and inspired many people around the world with its messages, it has kickstarted the career for a woman so brilliant, so talented, and so sweet so as to have yelled at Hugh Jackman when he suggested she got this role on her own. It’s her kind of story, so sweet and inspiring, and her kind of song, so full of confidence and self-love, that brings motivation and inspiration to people when they need it most. Anytime I watch The Greatest Showman or listen to any of the songs from the movie, I’m not thinking of Barnum and the facts of his case. I’m only thinking of the movie, the messages it sent, and the incredible Cinderella story of Keala Settle, an amazingly talented singer who had me moved from her first words on screen.