Should only disabled actors play disabled characters

[Flying Pig]

What if there are no disabled actors available and capable of playing those parts?

One of the problems with allowing (say) men to play female parts and white people to play black parts is that it makes it easier for directors to say just that - to be naturally set against hiring a person who would naturally fit the role, make a cursory search, claim that they couldn't find any black people or women suitable to fit it and hire a white person or a man. By not allowing this to happen, you at least force them to look hard.

That said, I can now see an immediate problem - does this mean that the only actors who can play Richard III are those with spinal deformities? Perhaps the question should better be put positively: ceteris paribus, there is something innately detracting about making a non-disabled actor ape a disability, and something innately good about giving that role to somebody who does not have to pretend - especially when the disability in question (such as a mental illness like Tourette's, for example) might lead people to think that the non-disabled actor was mocking it.

 

[Kyriakos]

Acting, since its birth, was meant to be a creation of a role. The original (and still the one used in this language) term was Ethopoios, which comes from Ethos (means a lot of things, but in general it signifies character or behavior patterns) and Poio (verb meaning 'create', same root as in the term Poet). So the actor is creating something, in the context of the play/role.

Regarding actors with actual somatic disabilities (eg unable to move), there are some of them, but obviously only few who are actually actors. Personally i think that the whole point of acting is not about having someone who supposedly already is the role he is to play, be used in that role. That is not acting, it is merely poor art (regardless of the person potentially being very good at what he does). It reminds me a bit of the starting chapter of Nana, that novel by Zola, where it is very specifically explained just why Nana is the star of that theatre (hint: it is not due to acting ability).

 

[Flying Pig]

That's one thing, but then you have the problem that a white man with his face painted black not only takes a job away from a black actor - since the process never goes the other way, just as disabled actors are almost never called upon to play parts which do not expressly mention their disability - but offends black people watching, who see the spectacle as mocking them. I'd probably feel differently about seeing somebody on stage with a strong West Country accent if I knew it was their natural way of speaking, as opposed to knowing that they were putting it on.

 

[Kyriakos]

^The blackface-painting issue is (in my view) a very different deal, cause it has become seen (and not just due to error) as politically-based as well. By now i doubt many people (or anyone) actually would think of using a white actor as a black person (unless the role was meant to signify some comedic/political statement of some sort). I don't see any reason to use white people as black characters, provided the production is based on a country with a good number of black actors (eg USA).
Obviously in a Chinese movie it would be considerably more difficult to find a good black actor to play a black role.

 

[NovaKart]

I don't really think a man playing a woman is really comparable. It's rare that this would actually happen because most men are just not convincing. Divine playing a woman in hairspray is really the exception. There are probably as many roles where women play men, like Meryl Streep who played a rabbi in angels in America and cafe blanchett was bob Dylan in another movie.

It used to be pretty common for white people to play Asians. I don't know if they just felt like they didn't have enough Asian actors back then or they wanted an actor who was a big name.

Blackface is a particular type of role, it's not a white person pretending to be black in a serious role. I think a white guy plays Obama on SNL unless the white guy is mixed and I wasn't aware of that, anyway Obama is mixed too. I think most people would have a problem with a white person portraying a black character in a typical situation, SNL has a limited number of actors.

The actress who played jewel in deadwood actually had cerebral palsey.

 

[Zack]

Robert Downey Jr. played a black guy in Tropic Thunder, although that was a comedy.