00:03This is going to happen.
00:10My name is Matt Fraser. I'm a Londoner. I was born in London. I live there now. My hands
00:18are because my mum took thalidomide and I spend my time performing as an actor, as a
00:24sideshow artist, as a cabaret guy, as a burlesqueer, all those kind of things.
00:31I've managed to turn what was originally maybe seemed as negative into the positive
00:36thing about my life.
00:40It wasn't that Matt had short arms that attracted me to him as it was his face. He had a
00:53hand
00:53and dealt to him by God that he just is going to live life to the fullest anyway.
01:05Well, by the time I was 17, I was pretty unruly. I wasn't true to myself. I hadn't really accepted
01:13my own disability. I was kind of in denial. We could go on for hours about why. I'd just
01:18say it was society. It generally doesn't want you to deal with that. But I dealt with it.
01:24I dealt with it later in life. And it was only really then that I was able to access my
01:31own
01:32attractiveness. And people suddenly started saying, oh, you're quite a good looking guy
01:36or whatever. But they never used to say that before. I was happy with myself.
01:41For me, the word freak is a very complicated word. I think I've reclaimed it. I think initially
01:47it probably was a very negative thing. I mean, if you look at the actual structure of the
01:51word, it just means outlandishly different, rare, and all those things. And I am.
01:58I think I'm beautiful. And I like my difference. To me, freak is just somebody who's different,
02:04who performs their difference. I get a little pissed, frankly, at the way the media treats
02:10different people. Because if we could have control over our own imagery, everything would
02:15be very different. I think it's terrible for young people to grow up in a world where they
02:19have to aspire to looking like some model. When, you know, just take a look at the model.
02:25Not the person individual. I'm not having a go at them. But the airbrushing and all the
02:29perfecting and the falsifying that goes on. I mean, how is that useful or helpful to any
02:34of us? I just don't get it. It's something I have to kick against my whole life. Because
02:40under those definitions, I'm one ugly mofo. And I don't feel ugly. I feel like an okay guy.
02:47I feel like a... put him through the wringer. And we covered him in mud. We covered him in
02:57all kinds of stuff. I had chickens here. Ponies. And we had a great day. I don't think he laughed
03:07so much any one day after my amputation and I don't even like to use the word
03:25amputation because I hate labels I hate not that I hate being called an amputee
03:30I just hate labels like suddenly when I was in the hospital I was an amputee or
03:35a patient who had these legs that were no longer legs they were called stumps and
03:41like am I a tree am I suddenly like part of a tree I'm no longer a human I have
03:46stumps and I'm an amputee so anyways I hate labels I hate being called stuff so
03:51after I lost my legs people did look at me completely differently
03:59Amy Purdy came to funny farm via a post that we had out for at a modeling agency looking for
04:12a
04:12double amputee I had an idea in my head I wanted to go build legs for somebody that were spikes
04:23and I
04:26wanted to put them in a situation that they could never be in I want to capture that emotion impossible
04:33to really live a life like that how do you exist you don't fit into society everything's too sharp
04:47when Nikki asked me to do this project I was absolutely all for it because I love challenging
04:56people's ideas of beauty and what they think is beautiful there's a whole level of beauty that I
05:02think some people have more of that comes from the inside it was this amazing moment where she was
05:13kind of leaning back and we dropped the harness a little bit and she kept leaning back and at one
05:21point she was sitting down midair with her legs crossed very feminine and her arm was down and she was
05:31sort
05:31of looking off majestically and her hair was just sticking out spices beautiful face beautiful body it was
05:39just it was like the one picture you flip through magazines you see these beautiful women with these
05:47perfect bodies and beautiful hair and beautiful legs and gorgeous outfits and it makes you think
05:52that that's how you're supposed to be and if you're not that then you're not beautiful or you're not I
06:00don't know important somehow I knew that this is going to be a powerful photo shoot and I knew
06:07that this was going to kind of challenge people and have people think about this person in this photo
06:14if anything I've gone on to do more than most people who have legs I've been able to experience more
06:20than most people who have had legs and I absolutely have this life of experience and stories that I always
06:28wanted to have to be able to tell my kids and I've just I think I've seen life in a
06:34completely different
06:35way than I ever would have seen it if this didn't happen to me the hardest part about shooting Amy
06:43was
06:44that she wouldn't stop smiling she was so happy and so grateful it's inspiration I've been waiting for someone like
06:59you
07:00to make me
07:02to make me smile
07:04to make me feel alive
07:09you're giving me everything
07:12I've ever wanted in life
07:16you make me smile
07:22and I forget to breathe
07:26for like you
07:27helping me
07:27you
07:27you
07:27me
07:27what
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