As someone who is visually and physically impaired, but not restricted to a wheelchair or to use of a cane, I'll bring up somehting I don't think has come up in the arguments...what's blind "enough" or deaf "enough"?
My problem with saying, oh this role should be played by someone who's "disabled" is that it requires me to be separated from "normal." am I disabled if I can read, but can't drive or walk by myself? am i disabled if i've walked with forearm crutches for a year now, but hope to someday walk without them again?
I acted and danced in high school and college, before my rheumatological disease completely disrupted my life (even when my legs do work, cerebral vasculitis has removed my muscle memory of ballet), and I ended up doing mostly dance because my choreographer had diabetes and understood that i would never bail on a show, vs. everyone else who never bothered to ask.
so i'm all for blind casting...but by that i mean, not taking into account what isn't physically necessary for the part. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
I am another of Helen Keller's great-nieces and I agree with my cousin's comments below. The goal of putting on a play is to put on the best play possible - and that means of course the best cast and the best director and the best sets, etc. If there is a different goal, then why put on the play in the first place?Any hoped-for effects of the play - like, say, drawing attention to the capabilities of the blind and deaf - will be diminished if the play is not as good as it can be. I am not suggesting that no blind and/or deaf child actress could play this role well, but that the pool is surely considerably smaller and the communication issues with other cast and director considerably complicated, and that the director no doubt chose the young actress whom she felt she could work with best to achieve the best performance. As she should.
The best actor or actress for a job is the one who can convey that role believably to the widest possible audience. There are always experts in something-or-other who will notice the shortcomings of the actor's art. Someone below made the very good observation that to her, hearing actors are never believable when they do sign language - it's choppy and awkward and nuances of expression are lost. She is an expert in sign language and notices the unreality, the acting, that most of us don't notice. New Orleanians (I am one) are always rolling our eyes at the accents of actresess portraying Blanche Dubois, for instance, but no doubt the rest of the world isn't. Military history experts have plenty to scoff about in costumes and manners on stage and screen, but the rest of us don't. Of course any good actor or director tries for the best possible accuracy, but no one can be all things to all people.
Casting always, or usually, involves intelligent give-and-take. One actor looks the part perfectly, another, who looks most unlike the part is a better actor. It all depends on the play and the role and the rest of the cast and the director's vision - how can he or she work with the strengths and weaknesses of all the cast to achieve the vision and stage the best possible performance? That's not the audience's decision to make until the performance..
Oregon Shakspear Festival cast a deaf man in one of the leads for The Music Man. It worked perfectly. Maybe they should be casting disabled people in non-disabled rolls. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
Wow, I'm usually a lurker, but I have to comment on this. I think the responses to this article, in general, show how far the disability rights movement has to go to achieve parity, even with other minority groups.
To say it is an issue of the other actors comfort or ease seems short-sighted when people like Sharon Jensen are fighting for long-term goals of advancement. People with disabilities need the rest of the world to understand that, yes, their full participation may require a little extra effort for all of us, but it is the humane course of action, and ideally, it will make all of our lives richer to include these different experiences.
To say the director should be able to cast whomever he wants. . .yes, he should, but we should also take a good hard look at the ableist casting practices that keep characters AND actors with disabilities off of our screens.
These arguments for why the play should not feature a disabled actor are straw men that people with disabilities have been trying to knock down for a long time, and I am shocked that so many of the well-read, thoughtful commenters on Jezebel are uninitiated about the terms and parameters of this struggle. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@misanthropologist: Ablism and disability rights are something few commenters have to deal with. We all are chubby or know someone who is, and see weight discrimination daily; we all know or are POCs, and see racism daily; we all know or are women, and see sexism daily. These are familiar, and we understand (at least partially) how to overcome them. But ablism is virtually unknown--and many members of the disability community are not (very) noticably different than their peers, so their struggles are hidden in plain sight. Awesome comment. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
As Helen Keller's great-niece, I've got to weigh in here. I think many valid points have been aired here, but I stand behind Abigail Breslin's casting 110%. The point of William Gibson's wonderful play is not primarily to advocate for the disabled, per se...it is to tell the story of an amazingly intelligent child, burdened with a treble handicap, who through the foresight and love of both her family and teacher, was able to live an extraordinary life of personal achievement and advocacy for the disabled. Because the actress playing Helen has NO dialogue but is featured in 80% of the scenes, it is an incredibly challenging role where every "line" must be communicated through body language and/or actions. It is also an incredibly grueling part for the actress playing Anne Sullivan. Tremendous amounts of communication must exist between the two (both onstage and off) in order for the story to be presented as it was written and indeed lived by Helen and Anne. I think it would be very difficult to cast a deaf/blind actress as Helen due to this fact. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@Margot Keller: Helen Keller was indeed an amazing woman, and it must be a honor to be related to her.
I must question your assumption that a DB actress would have a hard time with the body language. Perhaps you are right, there are very few qualified DB actresses out there who can portray the body language appropriately. On the other hand, wouldn't a DB actress understand the body language dynamic even BETTER than a hearing-sighted actress? #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@Ms.RantyPants: With all due respect, I must disagree in regards to this particular play, as it deals solely with Helen's introduction to Anne at age 7. The entire play is based on Helen's initial hatred and mistrust of Anne, due in large part to Anne's "tough love" tactics , which loosened the loving grip of her family's sympathy, forcing Helen away from her role as a disruptive little tyrant. Because the actress playing HK must have ability to convey such complex nuances without the benefit of dialogue, the part requires an exceptionally gifted actress, which is why Patty Duke received an Academy Award for her portrayal in the 1962 film. You would need to find not only a talented deaf/blind child actor, but the actress playing Anne Sullivan would need to be fluent in tactile fingerspelling or tactile sign language. I have every confidence that Abigail Breslin's enormous talent will do the role justice. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
As a disabled woman, I NEVER see anyone on tv or in film who looks like me. If I do happen to see someone who looks like me, it's almost always an ablebody 'acting' disabled. It's absurd. People with disabilities, especially women, are continually excluded. [www.sag.org]#helenkellerabigailbreslin
With respect to deaf roles, I’m appalled when a hearing actor who has no command of American Sign Language is cast because it takes YEARS to master the language. It becomes glaring obvious when a hearing actor, trying to portray a deaf person, signs – the language becomes choppy, the subtle linguistic nuances are missing, and thus the very essence of the deaf character is gone. Then again, I’m deaf, fluent in American Sign Language, and these aspects of the language may more obvious to me, and not so much for a hearing audience. However, it’s disrespectful to my deaf culture to see a strong, deaf role butchered because the language fails to come across on screen or on stage.
P.S. – for those who brought up concerns that the monetary demands of hiring interpreters to help with the deaf actor in a hearing cast may not be feasible, there are ways around it. Smaller theatre groups such as Deaf West Theatre that feature "mixed" casts have fully managed to do so – I am fully confident this production can do the same. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@justjeking: You echoed my thoughts exactly. I am Deaf as well - and ASL has many nuances that a hearing actor who took a few classes can't capture. In this situation, however, I don't think ASL fluency is the issue. Helen Keller didn't use ASL as we know it - she probably just used SEE (signed exact english) or perhaps PSE (somewhere between ASL and SEE). Also this story is about her childhood, and to my recollection, she did not sign all that much (she said wa-ter and signed water).
I am not automatically opposed to hearing-sighted actors playing a deaf-blind character. Just so that everyone knows, the proper terminology is deaf-blind or DB, not deaf AND blind. (not directed to you justeking). But a few things about this comment thread and the play offend me...
1. There is the automatic assumption that nobody will come to a play, however well-acted, because the main character is an unknown AND deaf-blind (or whatever disability the actress has). PUH-LEZE. That's how a lot of breakout stars become famous. This is a stupid assumption.
2. Just because the DB actress may require an interpreter makes the whole thing financially infeasible. Like the commenter above said, there are creative ways around the problem. That's real life, and if you want to include people in mainstream society (equal rights and all), you have to make accommodations. Sorry if that's off-putting, but it's not our job to make everyone comfortable.
On a different note, I really hope this production hires a DB woman to help Abigail Breslin truly 'act' DB. Otherwise, this play will be horrible because a hearing-sighted person may transpose his or her idea of what DB is (probably inaccurately) onto the role. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
The issue of an actor with a visual or auditory impairment "negotiating" a stage is interesting to me -- I'm a college-level actress and dancer and have been reminded many, many times in my training, from middle school all the way on up to now, that a theatre is one of the most dangerous places you can be. Things are constantly flying in from overhead (and I shudder to think of what would happen if some oblivious flyman forgot that there was someone in the company that needed to be warned in a way other than the traditional "heads up!" shout), there are occasionally traps open on the stage... obviously, there are steps you can take to ensure that someone with an impairment CAN successfully navigate the dangerous world of the theatre, but I can understand producers in a professional setting not wanting to take that step. Not that I approve - but I can understand.
That being said, there was a girl in the year above me at my performing arts high school who was a dance major with a hearing impairment. She was in the highest levels and performed to the standard of everyone else in her class, and also performed in an outside hip-hop group that's well-known in our city. And in the musical I'm in at my college now, one of our ensemble members has a disability that affects his movement. Despite the fact that he uses a wheelchair to get around our sprawling campus, he comes to rehearsals and dances for four hours with everyone else. I can't see a professional producer taking a chance on a performer who needs an aid to walk, even if he's ridiculously talented and can work to the standard that everyone else does. It's sad that that's the reality in the professional world... #helenkellerabigailbreslin
On the show Breaking Bad, the main character's son has Cerebral Palsy. The actor who plays the role, RJ Mitt, has a mild form of Cerebral Palsy. While he must exaggerate his own condition to play the role of Walt Jr., it's one example I can think of of a disabled person acting the part of a disabled person. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@staryberry: The other one I thought of off the top of my head was Corky on Life Goes On. I think he was the first main character on a television series to have Down's Syndrome. Not too many since though! (This was late eighties, early nineties.) #helenkellerabigailbreslin
If we are going to say that able-bodied actors shouldn't play disabled roles, isn't the next step to say that disabled actors shouldn't play able-bodied roles?
@twileen: No, because there's no power imbalance or dispaity there. There is no lack of able-bodied actors. There is no lack of able-bodied roles. The problem only runs in one direction. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
I understand why they are so annoyed that a non-disabled actor was cast. It is not as if disabled actors are often considered for non-disabled parts. They have such limited opportunities to begin with that this almost completely closes the door.
The only disabled actor I can think of who works regularly is Marlee Matlin. It seems most of the time, parts are adjusted for her because the producers want her but for an Academy Award winner she doesn't work that much. Without Children of a Lesser God, I doubt she ever would have gotten regular work. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
About 6 months ago, I saw a play where all the actors were deaf and blind (well, a couple could see, and a couple could hear, but that's it). The play was written especially for these actors, and they very cleverly "made it work." For example, they beat a drum every time there was a scene change, and the actors knew to switch scenes based on the drum vibrations! And the actors talked in braille on each other's arms to communicate with each other.
The whole play was little vignettes about being deaf-blind. Just shows that with some clever thinking, you can make a play work even with lots of actors with multiple disabilities.
I know it's a special case, but it was still awesome so I wanted to mention it. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
There are a couple different issues here. One is that people with disabilities should absolutely be cast in a variety of roles, rather than explicitly "disabled" ones. Someone mentioned Marlee Matlin - on the West Wing, she played a pollster who just happened to be deaf. In reality, disabled individuals hold a variety of jobs and do a variety of things independent of their disability - it's like casting a black woman to be a judge, say, rather than just sassy angry black lady. So - yes, we should cast disabled individuals in normal roles.
In this particular instance, at the very least blind and/or deaf actresses should have been given the chance to audition - I'm not saying the role should only have gone to such an actress if she wasn't right for the part, but it's insulting to not consider it. The director is very explicit that he wanted a "name," which to me sounds like he didn't even consider hiring a disabled actress, since there are almost none with the starpower he was looking for. I understand financial considerations, but it's discriminatory - disabled individuals will never become famous if we don't give them opportunities, and a play about a well-known disabled individual is a perfect opportunity to give them that chance. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@susanstohelit: I understand financial considerations, but it's discriminatory
Eh. I would say it was discriminatory if he had also considered non-famous, non-disabled actresses for the part -- but he was adamant that he wanted a famous actress, not that he wanted a non-disabled actress. In this case, I don't think blind and deaf actresses are being discriminated against any more than struggling actresses looking for their big breaks. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@egg cream: Except that to get their big break is a damned lot harder than for able-bodied actresses, because of this sort of discrimination. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
I am really surprised by the comments here. I actually do not think this is so different from casting a white person to play a POC; this is a role that a person with disabilities could play that is being taken by an able bodied person.
Of course there are not many "big name" actors with disabilities - but doesn't this casting decision just serve to perpetuate that inequality? If a person with disabilities cannot even get cast to play a person with disabilities, how do we ever expect to have a big name star with disabilities? #helenkellerabigailbreslin
I think this is a very touchy issue. There should definitely be more roles for disabled actors. No question about that. There should be more roles for all different types of people, and not just roles where they play a person who is like themselves, but as a variety of different personas and situations.
That said, I do not personally have a problem with non-X actors playing characters with X. I identify as transgendered, but I am not bothered by actors who do not identify this way playing characters that do. If the depiction is respectful, I don't care. What I do care about is when shit like The Last Airbender happens and you get some punkass kid saying he can play a dark-skinned person by "shaving the sides of [his] head and getting a tan,". Thankfully, that kid is no longer on cast.
That was a film that specifically skewed for white actors, which is awful. Almost every character in the TV show the movie was based on was some type of Asian. The main "good guys" were Tibetan, Inuit and Chinese. The "bad guys" were also Chinese. Unfortunately, the film has now cast an all-white "good guy" team and an all brown "bad guy" team.
I don't see that quite as analogous with this situation. There should not be skewing towards the majority, if at all possible. Certainly, actors with disabilities need special accommodations and may not always be capable of acting. A person with developmental delays or someone who is low-functioning can't really do the same things that a person without these disabilities can. That may just be part of it - you need to have the capability to function on stage/screen/set, memorize complex and lengthy dialogue, read cues and body language, take criticism and direction, and apply that criticism. It may not be possible to always have someone with said disability portray a person with a disability.
However, any actor who is not X, but plays a character with X should do research. This is one of the times where "educating yourself" really comes to the front. You need to understand a lot of very nuanced things to play different roles, especially if you are privileged to have not experienced certain discriminatory practices or difficult lifestyles. You should have enough pride in yourself and your craft to want to do a good job, and therefore learn about all the little details. I hope to one day see Boys Don't Cry, and I am really hoping that Swank has the right body language - I hope to see the FTM table :D #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@boxspelunker: Just so you know, the guy in The Last Airbender who said he could shave the sides of his head and get a tan is Jackson Rathbone, and he IS still in the movie in a leading role. You were probably thinking of Jesse McCartney, who luckily is not in the movie but did not make those unfortunate comments. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@boxspelunker: I think the part of this that I find most interesting is looking at how people (here and elsewhere) reacted to ANTM's latest attempts to make people look like a different race than they are, rather than encouraging people of those other races. While not a universal reaction, people seem more willing to accept a non-disabled actor/ress as a disabled character than a white actor/ress as a person of another race. If we should instead be encouraging more people of a variety of races to play roles and model, shouldn't we also be encouraging the disabled instead of people playing them?
I am disabled and I often look around and see no one like me. I am occassionally on a cane or in a wheelchair. I don't see models like me. I don't see actors/resses like me. I don't see musicians like me. And I was older when I got sick - 15 years old. I can only imagine how this affects someone who grows up from a younger age like this. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@Chrysocolla: Well, poop! I sure was thinking of Jesse McCartney. I wasn't going to see it anyway, as I think they conducted themselves very unprofessionally. Also, since the creators of the TV show have distanced themselves from the project, I see no reason to support it. :/ Thanks for the correction!
@SparklyTempest: I think it's because of the history of racial tension. To add a cane to someone is very different than painting a person's entire body, to me. I am not exactly sure why I feel there's a difference - perhaps because anyone could become disabled, but you don't suddenly change races? I wish I could be more specific. It's something I'm not sure about.
A thousand times yes! We should encourage those with disabilities to pursue what they want. There are disabled characters on TV, such as Dr. House, that use canes, so why couldn't someone with an actual need for a cane play him, should they have the skill? I see no reason why not. Also, if they have a similar disability, they may have some insight into better characterization or situations that the character can/can't handle. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
@boxspelunker: Just a heads-up, but "low-functioning" and "high-functioning" are pretty offensive (they imply bad and good, respectively) within the autism community, and I'm sure within the wider disability community.
@boxspelunker: I think it's because of the history of racial tension. To add a cane to someone is very different than painting a person's entire body, to me.
You clearly don't understand the history of the discrimination against those with disabilities (visible or invisible). #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
My problem with saying, oh this role should be played by someone who's "disabled" is that it requires me to be separated from "normal." am I disabled if I can read, but can't drive or walk by myself? am i disabled if i've walked with forearm crutches for a year now, but hope to someday walk without them again?
I acted and danced in high school and college, before my rheumatological disease completely disrupted my life (even when my legs do work, cerebral vasculitis has removed my muscle memory of ballet), and I ended up doing mostly dance because my choreographer had diabetes and understood that i would never bail on a show, vs. everyone else who never bothered to ask.
so i'm all for blind casting...but by that i mean, not taking into account what isn't physically necessary for the part. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
The best actor or actress for a job is the one who can convey that role believably to the widest possible audience. There are always experts in something-or-other who will notice the shortcomings of the actor's art. Someone below made the very good observation that to her, hearing actors are never believable when they do sign language - it's choppy and awkward and nuances of expression are lost. She is an expert in sign language and notices the unreality, the acting, that most of us don't notice. New Orleanians (I am one) are always rolling our eyes at the accents of actresess portraying Blanche Dubois, for instance, but no doubt the rest of the world isn't. Military history experts have plenty to scoff about in costumes and manners on stage and screen, but the rest of us don't. Of course any good actor or director tries for the best possible accuracy, but no one can be all things to all people.
Casting always, or usually, involves intelligent give-and-take. One actor looks the part perfectly, another, who looks most unlike the part is a better actor. It all depends on the play and the role and the rest of the cast and the director's vision - how can he or she work with the strengths and weaknesses of all the cast to achieve the vision and stage the best possible performance? That's not the audience's decision to make until the performance..
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To say it is an issue of the other actors comfort or ease seems short-sighted when people like Sharon Jensen are fighting for long-term goals of advancement. People with disabilities need the rest of the world to understand that, yes, their full participation may require a little extra effort for all of us, but it is the humane course of action, and ideally, it will make all of our lives richer to include these different experiences.
To say the director should be able to cast whomever he wants. . .yes, he should, but we should also take a good hard look at the ableist casting practices that keep characters AND actors with disabilities off of our screens.
These arguments for why the play should not feature a disabled actor are straw men that people with disabilities have been trying to knock down for a long time, and I am shocked that so many of the well-read, thoughtful commenters on Jezebel are uninitiated about the terms and parameters of this struggle. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
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I must question your assumption that a DB actress would have a hard time with the body language. Perhaps you are right, there are very few qualified DB actresses out there who can portray the body language appropriately. On the other hand, wouldn't a DB actress understand the body language dynamic even BETTER than a hearing-sighted actress? #helenkellerabigailbreslin
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P.S. – for those who brought up concerns that the monetary demands of hiring interpreters to help with the deaf actor in a hearing cast may not be feasible, there are ways around it. Smaller theatre groups such as Deaf West Theatre that feature "mixed" casts have fully managed to do so – I am fully confident this production can do the same. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
I am not automatically opposed to hearing-sighted actors playing a deaf-blind character. Just so that everyone knows, the proper terminology is deaf-blind or DB, not deaf AND blind. (not directed to you justeking). But a few things about this comment thread and the play offend me...
1. There is the automatic assumption that nobody will come to a play, however well-acted, because the main character is an unknown AND deaf-blind (or whatever disability the actress has). PUH-LEZE. That's how a lot of breakout stars become famous. This is a stupid assumption.
2. Just because the DB actress may require an interpreter makes the whole thing financially infeasible. Like the commenter above said, there are creative ways around the problem. That's real life, and if you want to include people in mainstream society (equal rights and all), you have to make accommodations. Sorry if that's off-putting, but it's not our job to make everyone comfortable.
On a different note, I really hope this production hires a DB woman to help Abigail Breslin truly 'act' DB. Otherwise, this play will be horrible because a hearing-sighted person may transpose his or her idea of what DB is (probably inaccurately) onto the role. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
That being said, there was a girl in the year above me at my performing arts high school who was a dance major with a hearing impairment. She was in the highest levels and performed to the standard of everyone else in her class, and also performed in an outside hip-hop group that's well-known in our city. And in the musical I'm in at my college now, one of our ensemble members has a disability that affects his movement. Despite the fact that he uses a wheelchair to get around our sprawling campus, he comes to rehearsals and dances for four hours with everyone else. I can't see a professional producer taking a chance on a performer who needs an aid to walk, even if he's ridiculously talented and can work to the standard that everyone else does. It's sad that that's the reality in the professional world... #helenkellerabigailbreslin
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This seems like a slippery slope, no? #helenkellerabigailbreslin
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The only disabled actor I can think of who works regularly is Marlee Matlin. It seems most of the time, parts are adjusted for her because the producers want her but for an Academy Award winner she doesn't work that much. Without Children of a Lesser God, I doubt she ever would have gotten regular work. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
The whole play was little vignettes about being deaf-blind. Just shows that with some clever thinking, you can make a play work even with lots of actors with multiple disabilities.
I know it's a special case, but it was still awesome so I wanted to mention it. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
In this particular instance, at the very least blind and/or deaf actresses should have been given the chance to audition - I'm not saying the role should only have gone to such an actress if she wasn't right for the part, but it's insulting to not consider it. The director is very explicit that he wanted a "name," which to me sounds like he didn't even consider hiring a disabled actress, since there are almost none with the starpower he was looking for. I understand financial considerations, but it's discriminatory - disabled individuals will never become famous if we don't give them opportunities, and a play about a well-known disabled individual is a perfect opportunity to give them that chance. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
Eh. I would say it was discriminatory if he had also considered non-famous, non-disabled actresses for the part -- but he was adamant that he wanted a famous actress, not that he wanted a non-disabled actress. In this case, I don't think blind and deaf actresses are being discriminated against any more than struggling actresses looking for their big breaks. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
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Of course there are not many "big name" actors with disabilities - but doesn't this casting decision just serve to perpetuate that inequality? If a person with disabilities cannot even get cast to play a person with disabilities, how do we ever expect to have a big name star with disabilities? #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
That said, I do not personally have a problem with non-X actors playing characters with X. I identify as transgendered, but I am not bothered by actors who do not identify this way playing characters that do. If the depiction is respectful, I don't care. What I do care about is when shit like The Last Airbender happens and you get some punkass kid saying he can play a dark-skinned person by "shaving the sides of [his] head and getting a tan,". Thankfully, that kid is no longer on cast.
That was a film that specifically skewed for white actors, which is awful. Almost every character in the TV show the movie was based on was some type of Asian. The main "good guys" were Tibetan, Inuit and Chinese. The "bad guys" were also Chinese. Unfortunately, the film has now cast an all-white "good guy" team and an all brown "bad guy" team.
I don't see that quite as analogous with this situation. There should not be skewing towards the majority, if at all possible. Certainly, actors with disabilities need special accommodations and may not always be capable of acting. A person with developmental delays or someone who is low-functioning can't really do the same things that a person without these disabilities can. That may just be part of it - you need to have the capability to function on stage/screen/set, memorize complex and lengthy dialogue, read cues and body language, take criticism and direction, and apply that criticism. It may not be possible to always have someone with said disability portray a person with a disability.
However, any actor who is not X, but plays a character with X should do research. This is one of the times where "educating yourself" really comes to the front. You need to understand a lot of very nuanced things to play different roles, especially if you are privileged to have not experienced certain discriminatory practices or difficult lifestyles. You should have enough pride in yourself and your craft to want to do a good job, and therefore learn about all the little details. I hope to one day see Boys Don't Cry, and I am really hoping that Swank has the right body language - I hope to see the FTM table :D #helenkellerabigailbreslin
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I am disabled and I often look around and see no one like me. I am occassionally on a cane or in a wheelchair. I don't see models like me. I don't see actors/resses like me. I don't see musicians like me. And I was older when I got sick - 15 years old. I can only imagine how this affects someone who grows up from a younger age like this. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
@SparklyTempest: I think it's because of the history of racial tension. To add a cane to someone is very different than painting a person's entire body, to me. I am not exactly sure why I feel there's a difference - perhaps because anyone could become disabled, but you don't suddenly change races? I wish I could be more specific. It's something I'm not sure about.
A thousand times yes! We should encourage those with disabilities to pursue what they want. There are disabled characters on TV, such as Dr. House, that use canes, so why couldn't someone with an actual need for a cane play him, should they have the skill? I see no reason why not. Also, if they have a similar disability, they may have some insight into better characterization or situations that the character can/can't handle. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
I disagree with the rest of your post and will leave it at that. #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
You clearly don't understand the history of the discrimination against those with disabilities (visible or invisible). #helenkellerabigailbreslin