Disabled actors and performers, BBC

[beccaelizabeth]

In a discussion the other day someone mentioned how, when disabled people say a part should be cast with an actual disabled person, no names come up. Plus that one where they say 'but the character has to stand up sometimes!' or whatever. So I went looking for names.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/disabledtalent/
BBC pdfs of Disabled Actors and Performers Directories

bunches more people than I knew. So far I have found 'the uk's only disabled pro wrestler' who also does wheelchair basketball and uses sticks. Dan Edge. And that's just someone I clicked fairly randomly. I'm thinking perhaps he isn't quite like people think of when they think disabled performer. And neither are the rest of them, really.

additionally found
http://www.visablepeople.com/
UK's first agency with the sole objective of supplying professional models, actors and presenters with disabilities to the television, film and advertising industries.

and already knew
http://www.amputeesinaction.co.uk/aboutus.html
cause they did some TW and DW and films and stuff.

All this is UK and the discussion was about the US so *shrugs*

But lots of people in big lists, existing and everything.

Comments

[shahar-amar.livejournal.com]

I guess a lot of it depends on the disability and the role/storyline. Years back there was a US actor, who had Downs syndrome, playing a character with Downs syndrome. Or that early 80s movie about a young deaf woman and her teacher falling in love. Amputees get cast as extras for battlefield- and hospital scenes quite often, I think. But when you have flashbacks to when the character could still walk (X-men 3 comes to mind), or those stereotypical soapopera plots of "guess what, I got my eyesight back two months ago and know all about your plans", it might be easier to cast a non-disabled person. Usually actors have to be pretty versatile and a parapledic will be grounded to sitting roles. So that probably makes handicapped actors uncastable in a lot of minds. :o(

[beccaelizabeth]

yes. except the writing can always always adjust itself to the disability.

[shahar-amar.livejournal.com]

Of course it can, but that would require work and actual creativity. Surely you don't expect that from scriptwriters and casting agents, if they can get by on the same old tropes? Appartently it's easier for them to go with a known actor and put them in a wheelchair (or fatsuit or whatever) if the role calls for it, instead of casting someone fresh who already brings that with them. For people working in a supposedly creative field they can be pretty unimaginative.

Another point might be, that handicapped people sometimes have limitations on how many hours they can work, similar to childactors. Such a film tends to cost more, because you have to plan in more days and do lots of careful sceduling. Unless someone is already a big name or absolutely needed for the project (like children in a kidsmovie), studios are unwilling to pay for that.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

In an almost-related comment - this new movie Avatar features a army guy who uses a wheelchair, who sort of inhabits this super kitty-cat warrior body to fight on some kitty-cat planet. I was at Target yesterday and saw the action figures. There was one of the army guy and he had his wheelchair, which I thought kind of rocked.

[beccaelizabeth]

is that the same Avatar with the replacement white people?

[fleshuncovered.livejournal.com]

no thats a live action remake of a american cartoon, this one is by james cameron

[beccaelizabeth]

right, thanks

... you'd think there'd be enough titles to go around...

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

Except that not everyone uses a wheelchair wouldn't be able to stand up for short periods. It depends on what their disability is that it requires a wheelchair.

Basically, casting people are lazy.

[beccaelizabeth]

the wheelchair thing was my point, yeah

[executrix.livejournal.com]

In the U.S. series "Breaking Bad," the main character's teenage son is played by R.J. Mitte, who has cerebral palsy. (He uses crutches rather than a wheelchair.)

[beccaelizabeth]

I read about that