Should only disabled actors play disabled characters

[NovaKart]

Someone recently posted an article about how he's offended by non-disabled actors playing disabled characters and that those roles should only be offered to disabled people. He then compares it to black face and drag.

I felt like the comparison was a bit strange, especially for drag. Drag is a performance and not really a representation of real women and not meant to mock women. The reason why we don't normally have female characters played by men is because it normally looks silly and there are plenty of female characters who can do the role. The writer's comparison to Shakespeare's time is also a bit odd. Women were able to join the theater not because people started to find men imitating women to be offensive but because society became more liberal after the Restoration and there was room for women on stage.

The comparison to blackface was also a bit weird. Normally when a non-disabled actor performs a disabled character it is not to mock people with disabilities. The comparison with Asian characters performed by white people probably works though.

I think probably the best comparison is with straight actors playing gay people. The difference is that gay people can also play straight characters while disabled people would normally have a harder time playing non-disabled characters. I certainly don't have a problem with straight people playing gay characters because many excellent performances have come out of it, like Sean Penn playing Harvey Milk and Michael Douglas as Liberace but I do wonder why it seems like 9/10 times gay characters are played by straight people.

Anyway, I can understand his point coming from a desire to create more roles for disabled people but I don't find non-disabled actors playing disabled roles offensive on its own. Is it wrong?

Link to the article

http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/disabled-roles-disabled-performers

 

[Kyriakos]

In general:

-If there are disabled actors available for the role, and the producer deems them of sufficient acting ability, then obviously they are better-suited for it.

It seems pretty obvious that very few disabled people are actors (of course many 'actors' never went to drama school either). It sounds like a largely fabricated issue, at least as long as too few disabled people are into acting to allow for a more set link between the casting and actual disability.
Moreover some links cannot exist for more clear practical reasons: would you really get a person with an IQ of 70 to play the protagonist in a movie who supposedly has this IQ level? It would not work, no. Besides, acting is not about having people who are the role already; which is why it is called 'acting'. (the original term refers to 'creating a character/ethos').

 

[Zack]

Should mean characters only be played by mean actors? It's an actor's job to pretend to be something they aren't.

 

[Cutlass]

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

 

[Narz]

Should mean characters only be played by mean actors? It's an actor's job to pretend to be something they aren't.

+1

I think Forest Gump played a better ******** guy than most ******** guys would. It makes sense from a practical standpoint to have a smart guy play a mentally disabled one (lines to memorize, instructions to follow, etc.) and it makes sense to have a quick on his feet guy play a wheelchair-bound one as well (easier to move him from set to set).

I don't see the big deal.

 

[ParkCungHee]

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

What if no properly persons are available? Should we just keep polio kicking around forever in case we feel like making an FDR biopic?

 

[JollyRoger]

How about wheelchair racers in marathons? In my first race back in the early 80s, we saw a nondisabled guy enter the wheelchair event.

 

[Commodore]

How about wheelchair racers in marathons? In my first race back in the early 80s, we saw a nondisabled guy enter the wheelchair event.

Does it really matter? Yeah, it's a douchy thing to do but are we really going to start verifying if people are really disabled for such events? I mean, what advantage is conferred to an individual who does that? If anything they would be at a disadvantage because they aren't as experienced in the usage of a wheelchair for athletic events as an actual disabled person.

 

[Kyriakos]

^It is still more 'noble' than a guy in a dog costume winning a dog fair

 

[RedRalph]

Forrest Gump wasn't meant to be ********, was he? I thought he was just a chump

 

[Chukchi Husky]

In one scene near the beginning it is revealed that Forrest Gump has an IQ of 75.

 

[Flying Pig]

For some reason I'm reminded of the actor - was it Alec Guinness? - who said he always had to play his drunk scenes sober because when he got drunk he forgot how to play a drunk person.

 

[NovaKart]

I looked on imdb but couldn't find the quote. I was surprised to find out he hated Star Wars but I suppose it makes sense. He complained a lot about the dialogue saying it was banal.

I heard that Martin sheen was really drunk when he did the scene in the hotel room in apocalypse now but in that scene he's incredibly drunk, not just normal drunk.

 

[Core Imposter]

Should only disabled actors play disabled characters?

Well, if you follow that line of thinking you'd have to ban fiction altogether. All of our artistic creations are based on human imagination.

This is really about anti-capitalism and anti-meritocracy. In other words, whining by any other name is still whining.

I am old and suffer chronic pain. Should only young people be pain free? Is that fair? Shouldn't we all be equal. I demand all people suffer equal pain. Whine. Whine. Whine.

The only equality in life is that we all have to play the hand we are dealt.

 

[H4run]

Forrest Gump wasn't meant to be ********, was he? I thought he was just a chump

I read the novel when I was in junior highschool, as far as I remember he was intent to be mentally incapable person but in a special way, I remember when one of the Professor from some university bring Forest to his class to show his student a perfect example of "Idiot Savant". Which he made (a weird) parallel between Gump and the King Lear clown in Shakespeare. For the definition of idiot Savant, regarding to Wikipedia is this:

condition in which a person with a mental disability, such as an autism spectrum disorder, demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal.

I think there is a paradox in Savant Syndrome, in one hand they had a below average capability, but in other aspects he can also able to develop skill and ability far above the average (superior). The movie "Rain Man" also a good example about "Idiot Savant". I found it very interesting.

 

[Kyriakos]

I read the novel when I was in junior highschool, as far as I remember he was intent to be mentally incapable person but in a special way, I remember when one of the Professor from some university bring Forest to his class to show his student a perfect example of "Idiot Savant". Which he made (a weird) parallel between Gump and the King Lear clown in Shakespeare. For the definition of idiot Savant, regarding to Wikipedia is this:



I think there is a paradox in Savant Syndrome, in one hand they had a below average capability, but in other aspects he can also able to develop skill and ability far above the average (superior). The movie "Rain Man" also a good example about "Idiot Savant". I found it very interesting.

Interesting, i did not know the movie was so different from the original material (i did not even know there was a book to begin with...)

As for the actual Gump movie, i did not like it at all. But i am still happy it won the award instead of that Tarantinic crap

In the movie, of course, F.Gump is a person with very low IQ, and not any special ability either (savant, etc). I think that 'savant' is mostly used for math (or closely related) abilities of autistic people (?). Stuff like calculating fast what the root of some huge (and not a perfect square) number is, and so on.

 

[Flying Pig]

Forrest Gump can run and play table tennis to a remarkable level, the latter of which takes at least some quick thinking. He also makes himself a fortune with his shrimp business.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Wasn't that only tabletop tennis, or "ping-pong"?

And FYI the shrimping business was not just his, it was the Baba-Gump shrimp company

 

[Narz]

Chukchi Husky is here!!!

 

[Core Imposter]

The whole point of the Gump movie was the degree to which people can live remarkable lives despite disabilities if they adopt positive attitudes. The case of Lt. Dan for example.