A very cruel country we live in where not only do we not make it wheel chair accessible we have a king in charge who mocks & belittles those among us who are challenged. Great post as always.
Written with class and your beautiful narrative style, this essay makes the point for a revolution in how we think about the disabled and how we can make their lives easier.
As an actor/writer and producer this is a difficult subject to tackle and I deeply appreciate the article. I studied for a very brief time with a wonderful and very talented stage actress who was severely disabled after a car accident. On the one hand acting provides an actor with the ability to explore all facets of themselves and humanity as a whole. We learn about life through this lens and as Socrates once said "The unexplored life is not worth living." However, that is not to say that anyone with any form of "disability" shouldn't become an actor and benefit from such a wonderful vocation. Peter Dinklage broke through the glass ceiling and proved himself to be a very talented and diverse actor far beyond his physical dimensions, so did Marlee Matlin as a deaf actress. Sidney Poitier had to break through the "disability" of being black - I am still trying to break through with the "disability" of being a relative nobody. The problem with Hollywood isn't the fact that it ignores people with disabilities, it ignores anyone who cannot immediately make them money, based on who has made them money in the past and it acts like an exclusive country club. It is one of the most, uncreative and backward industries on the planet. As Will Smith once said, "Hollywood isn't black or white, it's green." We had a situation recently when casting a trans actor for a film role and approached several agents who represented trans actors and none of them wanted the role. They all wanted to play cis-gendered women, because they didn't want to be typecast anymore. So we started approaching cis-gendered actors, who didn't want the role for fear of upsetting the trans community. In the end my view is that a role should be open to everyone, but should go to the best actor for the job which is often the one with the most passion for it, because it resonates with something they need to learn, integrate within themselves or know and express. This problem also extends to writers, too. I have been criticized for writing scripts with Native American characters in them, but unless you have a roomful of writers each writing a role for a woman, a disabled person, a war veteran, a Native American etc in the same film script, I don't know how you get around that problem. And as a writer, I have a very clear vision of what I want to say, which would be diluted with a committee full of people with different voices, pulling the story in different directions.
A very cruel country we live in where not only do we not make it wheel chair accessible we have a king in charge who mocks & belittles those among us who are challenged. Great post as always.
Deep bow.
a wannabe 'king' with not a drop of nobility in his blood
"Disability is the only minority anyone can join at any time."
Such an important reminder! (My mother had a stroke during a long haul flight and lived for nearly 2 decades paralysed in a wheelchair.)
Seeing disability feeding the film industry is a whole other level of experience. Unbelievable!
Gorgeous artwork!!! Thoughtful anthem about and strong voice for the disabled among us.
Written with class and your beautiful narrative style, this essay makes the point for a revolution in how we think about the disabled and how we can make their lives easier.
Fabulous!
Fantastic post! I am deaf and noticed this trend years ago. Very grateful for Marlee and Troy!
As an actor/writer and producer this is a difficult subject to tackle and I deeply appreciate the article. I studied for a very brief time with a wonderful and very talented stage actress who was severely disabled after a car accident. On the one hand acting provides an actor with the ability to explore all facets of themselves and humanity as a whole. We learn about life through this lens and as Socrates once said "The unexplored life is not worth living." However, that is not to say that anyone with any form of "disability" shouldn't become an actor and benefit from such a wonderful vocation. Peter Dinklage broke through the glass ceiling and proved himself to be a very talented and diverse actor far beyond his physical dimensions, so did Marlee Matlin as a deaf actress. Sidney Poitier had to break through the "disability" of being black - I am still trying to break through with the "disability" of being a relative nobody. The problem with Hollywood isn't the fact that it ignores people with disabilities, it ignores anyone who cannot immediately make them money, based on who has made them money in the past and it acts like an exclusive country club. It is one of the most, uncreative and backward industries on the planet. As Will Smith once said, "Hollywood isn't black or white, it's green." We had a situation recently when casting a trans actor for a film role and approached several agents who represented trans actors and none of them wanted the role. They all wanted to play cis-gendered women, because they didn't want to be typecast anymore. So we started approaching cis-gendered actors, who didn't want the role for fear of upsetting the trans community. In the end my view is that a role should be open to everyone, but should go to the best actor for the job which is often the one with the most passion for it, because it resonates with something they need to learn, integrate within themselves or know and express. This problem also extends to writers, too. I have been criticized for writing scripts with Native American characters in them, but unless you have a roomful of writers each writing a role for a woman, a disabled person, a war veteran, a Native American etc in the same film script, I don't know how you get around that problem. And as a writer, I have a very clear vision of what I want to say, which would be diluted with a committee full of people with different voices, pulling the story in different directions.