“This conversation is so necessary because there are 56 million Americans with a disability. That is 20% of the population. But if you judged our existence by what you see on TV, you would think we made up less than 1%,” said actress Marlee Matlin. “Movies aren’t much better — there is something wrong with the entire picture.”
Matlin’s comments came today at the first-ever (and long overdue) Disability Inclusion Roundtable held in Beverly Hills, where Matlin, RJ Mitte, Danny Woodburn, Micah Fowler and Orlando Jones took the stage to talk about the most unrepresented minority in Hollywood — people with disabilities, those who are often forgotten as part of the diversity landscape.
“We as an industry keep talking about diversity. We know we have a problem but when we start speaking about diversity, disabilities seem to be left out,” Matlin added. “We all remember the last Oscars for being too white. The Academy said its 2016 mandate is inclusion in all of its facets, but where is disability?”
In July of this year, the The Ruderman Family Foundation, which advocates for the full inclusion of people with disabilities in society, released a White Paper study on Employment of Actors with Disabilities in Television, co-authored by Woodburn, that laid out the inequality in the film and television industry for those with disabilities. It revealed that 95% of television characters with a disability on the top 10 TV shows are played by able-bodied actors. The Ruderman Foundation also organized the Beverly Hills event today.
“We are talking about a group of people (with disabilities) that are invisible right now, that are treated like second-class citizens,” said Jones. “If representation was equal, we wouldn’t be having this discussion. It’s human rights abuse, that’s what we are talking about.”
The panelists also said that even getting an audition — and physically getting into an audition — for a role is hard if you have a disability in this town.
“If I’m going to audition on a second floor with no elevator and it’s for a character in a wheelchair, then there was clearly no intent for calling in an actor with a wheelchair,” said Woodburn. “It’s a matter of access to employment and that’s also the case in the deaf community and the blind community needing interpreters and readers for their auditions.”
Fowler asked for casting directors to rethink the roles that they look at on the breakdowns: “Just give us a chance,” he said.
So true! I stopped watching SUPERSTORE when I saw that they cast an “able” body to play someone in a wheelchair. Pretty sure they could’ve cast an actor with a disability (gosh I hate that word) to play the role if they wanted to.
Did you not watch Glee for the same reason?
But why does it matter? Don’t actors play make-believe for a living? At this point, I’m curious as to what roles actors are allowed to play without causing controversy. Are actors only allowed to play characters with different occupations and different personalities?
Because it’s NOT authentic. At one time it was okay for white actors to put on black face. And at another, for white actors to play Asian, Latino, etc. But we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t authentic. For an actor to “play” disabled diminishes the person with the disability who can play the character AUTHENTICALLY. You say it’s about “playing” the disability but put an actor with the disability in the role and they are playing the CHARACTER. And by the way comparing playing an actor with with a disability to playing a different occupation or personality is insensitive and ignorant on your part. Go hang out with people with disabilities or who are deaf or hard of hearing and you’ll soon find out why.
Dear Jack Jason,
You’re not living in the real world. Acting is NOT about being “authentic”. It’s about make believe. Fantasy. Pretend. The fact is this — disabled actors will always be disabled. THEY can’t play the part of someone who ISN’T disabled. An non disabled actor can do both. That’s not an insult, it’s a fact. Marlie M. will never be in a musical. Disabled actors are limited, non disabled actors are not. This argument makes about as much sense as protesting that blind people can’t be race car drivers, or little people can’t be in the NBA. Facts are facts. Period.
Geez, people need to mellow out. We can’t always be what we want to be just because we want it! I’d like to be a brain surgeon, but…
Disabled characters fall into 2 loosely defined groups those who had a life before the disability and those who didn’t. So if you want flashbacks of the first type of character the disabled actor can not play it. Second a disabled actor can not do a lot of stunts and they do happen on occasion.
So is it OK for a single actor to play a parent? Or is that not authentic? Is it OK for a gay actor to play straight? Or is that not authentic.
Your line of reasoning is truly ridiculous.
I agree that not every disabled character should be played by a disabled actor be it demands of the shoot or an abled bodied actor in a given case just giving a better performance for whatever reason. But there are cases like Glee or Superstore where there is really no reason those parts couldn’t have been cast by a disabled actor. None.
OMG, I didn’t know that about Superstore. I am finished watching that then. Thank you.
#oscarssoablebodied
It’s not the Casting Directors fault. They are the low man on the totem pole. It is the writers, producers and studio and network executives. Every time an idea is pitched to play a role differently than the usual, they are shot down. It happens time and time again. “Oh, we didn’t see the role ‘that’ way.”