www.denverpost.com: For his role in The Upside, Bryan Cranston generated an overwhelming amount of publicity last month. Much of the response doesn’t focus on the film itself, but on the able-bodied Cranston’s portrayal of a quadriplegic character: namely, whether Cranston’s role is offensive or inoffensive, stereotypical or not. “Is it inspiration porn?” some wonder. Others are asking, “Should able-bodied actors play disabled characters?”
2 comments:
This is a really interesting perspective to be getting about this topic. The only other opinion I had heard from a disabled person came through Trevor Noah from an internet thread he had seen, so it was not exactly reputable. I have been having trouble finding out where the line is here. At some point, actors have to be able to play roles that they do not fully relate to, because that is acting, but we also do have to make this business more open and accepting fro everyone of every ability. I think this author makes a strong point in showing that Brian Cranston here is not the problem but the symptom. If this show wanted to have a top billed actor play the role, I do not think there are any quadriplegic people who could fit the bill, which is a problem from the industry as a whole and a systemic issue that needs to be addressed on a much broader scale than just this one movie.
This is a hot topic right now, and I feel like my opinion as an able-bodied person is not the most relevant to the conversation, but I want to understand where the lines are and how we can find them. I agree with the author and don’t put the blame on Bryan Cranston, I’m sure he did what he could to be respectful and play the role from a genuine place. I do wish that the opportunity was given to a quadriplegic actor, but what if Bryan Cranston gave the best audition? It brings up the question of what should be considered first, the weight of “criteria” when making casting decisions, how much an actor should actually have in common with their character and what those similarities should be. As far as we know, Zac Efron has never killed anyone, but he is playing Ted Bundy. This is an extreme example of course and doesn’t carry the same social implications as ableism in casting, but we have to find the line when it comes to acting outside of your experiences.
I think a larger part of the problem is that people with disabilities are not given the same opportunities early in the formation of their careers, we don’t have a single disabled actor in our program here. I don’t know if that’s for lack of them auditioning or not, but I’m sure that’s the case in schools across the country. So that’s probably the first hurdle we need to jump, and we should start sooner than college and encourage students with disabilities to perform (or whatever else they want to do) in high school, middle school, and elementary school.
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