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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: Naked on-screen with Scarlett Johansson

Adam Pearson

02/02/2015

Naked on-screen with Scarlett Johansson

BBC World Service - Outlook, Naked on-screen with Scarlett Johansson

Adam Pearson has a facial disfigurement but works as a TV presenter and actor

Adam Pearson is a British actor whose face is distorted by tumours. The South Korean adopted by a US family - but who turned her back on them. And Nepal's high wire crossings.

Throughout his life 29 year old Adam Pearson has been bullied, harassed, stared at and called everything from Elephant Man to Scarface because of the way he looks. He has a genetic condition called neurofibromatosis which causes tumours to grow on his face, making it swollen and distorted.  While some with this condition might choose to hide away from the world - Adam has put himself firmly in the media spotlight, as a television presenter, and more recently as an actor. His first movie role required a nude scene with one of Hollywood's biggest stars Scarlet Johansson, in the film Under The Skin, in which Johansson plays an alien who drives around Scotland in a van seducing young men.   

Laura Klunder was one of thousands of South Korean children given up for overseas adoption in the 1980s. She was brought up by an American family in the state of Wisconsin - but all the time wanted to know more about her roots. Laura trained as a social worker and now - at the age of 30 - she's gone back to live in the South Korean capital Seoul where she works with many other returning adoptees. 

In rugged and remote parts of western Nepal, many people rely on wire bridges to get to school or to market. The wire bridges cut journey times, but they can be dangerous. We visit western Nepal to meet the people who use the river crossings every day.

Ian McCann specialised in the maintenance of oil rigs by abseiling down the outside of them on special safety ropes. He sold half his business to pay for a new passion - travelling the world with marine archaeologists, diving on shipwrecks deep under the ocean for historic artefacts, and filming the expeditions.

(Photo: Adam Pearson)

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