Authenticity is a fundamental aspect of storytelling. It impacts our beliefs, forms our understandings of life, and guides our social perceptions. Characters that reflect real life authentically combat prejudice and inequality, helping to avoid the negative views that harmful stereotypes can cause.
When creating an on-screen depiction of a character with a disability, the portrayal should be respectful, true to life and authentic, presenting the person as an individual, as opposed to a caricature, or a personality defined by an impairment.
But how often does that happen?
After an analysis of a vast number of streaming and TV shows, it was found that just 22% of characters with disabilities were portrayed authentically. In 2019, it was reported that although 88 Oscar winners and nominees have played characters with a disability, only two were portrayed by actors who had a disability in real life.
So how do we create a more accurate picture of disability in our industry? How do we make the changes that allow for authentic portrayals of disability on screen? Here are a few basic pointers to ensure disability is painted more accurately and pitfalls such as stereotyping are avoided.
Cast actors with disabilities
It sounds obvious, but if a character has a disability in a script, you should do your utmost to cast an actor with a disability. Of course, there will be times when this is impossible, or that the film/show’s narrative causes obstacles. Take Eddie Redmayne’s performance in The Theory of Everything for example. Redmayne plays Stephen Hawking during the period of his life that he has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), but he also plays Hawking during his youth, the part of his life when he was not disabled, making authentic casting very difficult. But generally, when a character has a disability, every effort to cast someone with a similar impairment should be made to ensure an accurate portrayal.
However, authenticity isn’t just about casting actors to play a character with a disability. It’s also about representation, meaning that actors with disabilities should be considered for any character, when possible. After all, one in four of all American adults, have a disability, but do we see that representation on screen? Unfortunately not. In fact, just 2.3% of all speaking characters in the 100 top-grossing films were depicted with a disability.
A good way to tackle this is to discuss and consider characters in the pre-audition stages of production, questioning the team if there are any reasons why a particular character needs to be able bodied and, if so, why? If there is no particular reason- then it can be made clear that you’re auditioning and casting process for that role will be fully inclusive.
Offering Accessible Auditions
A good place to start, when attracting talent with disabilities is by making your audition process as inclusive and accessible as possible. Firstly, make it abundantly clear you are inclusive in all your audition materials, castings, and breakdowns. This is a particular area in which the Casting Director and their office staff can step up, helping to foster a more inclusive audition environment. Hiring Casting Directors who are willing to take the necessary steps to assure disability inclusion on your production will be vital to kicking-off your pre-production steps towards authenticity. They can do this by communicating with agents and managers (possibly the actors themselves), to ask if their clients have any specific requirements and, if the casting offices aren’t accessible already, host the auditions in venues with accessible facilities (and make it known that those environments are accessible).
Consider different formats for any written materials, avoiding PDFs as they tend not to work well with assistive technologies such as screen readers (unless they are created specifically to be accessible). Other accessible digital formats include HTML, MS Word or Google Docs.
Also, allowances may need to be made for a little extra time and any assistance an actor with one or more disabilities may need, as well as the sourcing of additional help (ASL interpreters, for example).
Most of all, get into the habit of always asking all talent if they have any specific additional requirements or needs, so that your reputation as an inclusive production team gains positive recognition.
You can also appoint an organization such as Bascule Entertainment to help you source talent with disability, or provide script consultation, audit your accessibility on set, and assist with any other area of inclusivity you may be hoping to tackle in your production.
Consultation
Another important aspect when creating an authentic portrayal of disability is gaining consultation. Always consider the knowledge and experience of disability groups and consult with individuals if you are tackling a specific aspect of disability, or if you are writing/ depicting a character with a specific impairment. Consider charities, or groups that support people with lived experience of that particular disability. What are the implications of that disability? How might it impact and affect that individual’s friends/family/co-workers and their relationships with them? What could a character with that disability realistically be capable of doing?
Above all - Do Your Research!
Negativity, tokenism, and stereotypes
The biggest pitfalls in disability representation are the creation of negative portrayals, stereotypes, and tokenism. For many years, people with disabilities were famously depicted as the ‘villain’ in a narrative, or someone who’s life is sad and depressing after acquiring a disability. They are also portrayed as someone who has a bleak (possibly reclusive) existence because they were born with or acquired a disability. Many characters with disabilities are often written in ways that end up portraying people with disabilities as weak, as people who elicit pity from other characters or the audience.
Other obvious stereotypes to avoid are the obviously comedic character, always providing light relief, or the ‘over-positive’ character that acts as a conduit for cheesy inspiration.
The way to avoid these pitfalls is to simply consider the character as you would any other, as a three-dimensional, credible individual. Consider their emotions, personal traits, cultural nuances, their depths, and complexities. Avoid the skin-deep, and superficial portrayals that put a disability into the forefront of an individual’s characteristics.
Writing authentic characters
It goes without saying that in order for there to be authentic portrayals of disability on screen, we need more scripts with a wide range of characters with disabilities. Disability will always be most authentically portrayed by people with lived experience of it, but that’s not to say disability shouldn’t be documented by writers that don’t have one. Of course, we are always striving to discover and promote the talents of writers with a disability, but what is also important is a more realistic representation of characters with disabilities across all scripts.
In summary, over simplifying and pigeonholing characters with disabilities can have an enormously negative impact and influence societal attitudes toward disabilities and should always be avoided. Casting actors with disabilities, researching and making your creative processes and practices fully accessible and being open about your inclusivity, will always help you attract a more diverse cast, resulting in accurate and truly authentic portrayals.
CHRIS JAY, FOUNDER & CEO OF BASCULE ENTERTAINMENT
.png)
%20(6).png)