I didn’t really give it a second thought. I watched every episode of Facts of Life back in the 80’s. I just assumed Tootie wore skates because they were popular and it was qwerky.
Kim Fields (who played Tootie) says there was a clever ruse at work.
Talking with Page Six, Kim explained it was more about giving her inches. “I was very grateful because it gave me an opportunity to have a job, that for all intents and purposes, I may not have had because I was nine years old and I was playing 12. So that’s what it took me to have the job. I was on skates till I grew.”
The 52-year-old New York native’s television career spans generations of TV, from “The Facts of Life,” to “Living Single” with Queen Latifah to the new Netflix show “The Upshaws” with Mike Epps and Wanda Sykes.