Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
-
posts about #painandable more → 
Should Able-Bodied Actors Play Disabled Characters?
New York, 7:52 AM
Thu Dec 17
63 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
| Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
| Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan Morrissey
| Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
| Twitter
Sadie Stein
| Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
| Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
| Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Lizzie Skurnick
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Weekends/Commenter Moderator:
Hortense
| Twitter
| posts about #painandable more → |
Should Able-Bodied Actors Play Disabled Characters? |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
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..
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
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
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
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
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
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
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
This seems like a slippery slope, no? #helenkellerabigailbreslin
10/30/09
10/30/09
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
10/30/09
10/30/09
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
10/30/09
10/30/09
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