Saved! And Other Thoughts

[lara_everlong]

Wow, this community is pretty cool. I'm glad I found it

Comments

[gehayi]

Yeah, it bothers me to a degree. But the point is getting people with disabilities portrayed at all. And right now there aren't a lot of portrayals.

Unfortunately, Hollywood is still having massive problems with racism and sexism. I don't see the powers that be in Hollywood grasping, at this point, that ableism is even a problem.

[lara_everlong]

And there definitely aren't a lot of realistic portayals that aren't omg tragic or just a plot device, unfortunately. I'm not sure what my own opinion is on this really, I just wanted to see how other ppl feel.

[haddayr]

I don't know if you're asking too much as far as the political reality of casting, but it's just wrong to cast ABs in wheelchairs.

Actors who use wheelchairs have a VERY LIMITED number of roles available to them as it is, even without ABs taking the roles. And don't get me started on how ABs so often use these roles for oscar gold: "Look at me! I am pretending to be disabled so WELL! Look. I made you cry."

I see it as the modern version of "blacking up."

[lara_everlong]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you here but one thing I thing that stands in the way of casting real actors with disabilities instead of hiring someone to teach an ab actor to fake it is that in a lot of films the character is on the screen as an ab as well. There really isn't any way to get around that one without being very very clever about it and I wonder if directors or producers don't even want to deal with it. For that matter... Not that I've ever been on a movie set but I'd bet anything the entire set and studio aren't accessible.

[elettaria]

Not to mention that there are disabilities you simply couldn't act with. You're not going to be starring in any films if you're too ill to get out of your own house, for instance. I mentioned Reeve below, but I bet he only ended up in that film because he was a famous actor before his accident, and that was a one-off. I somehow doubt there are other quadriplegics starring in films.

[lara_everlong]

also a good point

[pandorasblog]

I saw Saved! not long ago and loved it - like you, I was raised Christian and I really appreciated the fact that the film portrayed that culture accurately, neither making fun of it for the hell of it or failing to call it on its fail. It reads as if written by someone who's been there, because mostly when you get fundamentalist or evangelical Christians portrayed in films it's done from the outside looking in, with no understanding

[lara_everlong]

It is complicated, and I'm not even sure where I stand on the issue myself.

That whole movie did a great job of blasting through so many stereotypes I really loved it and I hate to use it as an example, or possible example, of ablism bc I'm sure that was the last thing they wanted to do!

As for avatar... I thought the whole disability issue was handled really, really well - and that's an example where it wouldn't have even been possible to hire a disabled actor - but that much race fail was reminiscent of Hollywood 20 hrs ago. I was shocked.

[kaowolfie]

Honestly, Avatar wasn't anything new on the race fail front. It was just more open about it than Hollywood usually is. :/

[elettaria]

Boring mod note: could you put in an LJ-cut with a spoiler warning, hon? Thanks for tagging the post, though I'm a little puzzled by the first tag, did it have a character limit

[elettaria]

NB: I fiddled with the tags and it does indeed cut off the end of the tag unexpectedly, so I rephrased that one to fit. I've also downloaded the film and will probably watch it tonight.

[lara_everlong]

You know, I didn't think of anything I wrote as a spoiler, but reading back, you are so right. Cut added!

I like the comparison to a gay actor playing a straight role and vice versatile, and I don't think disabled roles should be off in their own little categories separate form everything else. That'd be even worse I think. I guess I just wish it was even possible for a disabled actor to have a real career. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is the woman who was a Paralympic track star first - Aimee mullins I think her name is.

[kaowolfie]

I would be bothered less by crip drag if disabled actors were being hired at rates which reflected our presence in the population. Since we aren't, yes, it hurts to see able-bodied people cast to play us.

[lara_everlong]

Yeah that makes a whole lot of sense. It doesn't bother me so much to see someone in "crip drag" as it does to see vitually NO disabled actors ever, or only very, very rarely and on minor, token-ish roles ( like the guy on that one ep of glee)

[elettaria]

There's our presence in the general population, and our presence in the acting population. The second will be a lot smaller. The next issue is the proportion of disabled characters on screen, and how that relates to the first two numbers. It'll certainly be far lower than real life, between Hollywood's preference for its nice little narrow definition of Beautiful People, lack of accessible facilities, the genuine reason that many disabilities make acting very difficult or even impossible (there's absolutely no way I could act, even though ironically I look perfectly healthy), and the fairly genuine problem that even without prejudice, a director will want the best actor for a part and will want a reasonable amount of actors to choose from, which isn't going to happen unless we get huge numbers of disabled actors appearing. I suppose the reason why I'm not so bothered by this is because it seems too far off to expect that sort of improvement just yet, just as there's no point campaigning for same-sex marriage in a country where it'

[pandorasblog]

This is the kind of list I wanted to make when I first commented and was trying to work out what it'd take for us to get a real change happening. I salute your thoroughness and agree 100%.