variety.com: In a post to Instagram on Sunday, internet journalist and DC superfan Emmanuel Newsome tagged James Gunn and asked if he could help out Cipes. Newsome claimed the former “Teen Titans Go!” star shared “lots of upsetting details” about how Warner Bros. “discriminated” against him because of his Parkinson’s.
3 comments:
It’s a shame this article is so short and I have so little time to write this. Of course, this sucks for Greg. I hope he finds peace with his loss of this role, and I hope this production company learns from their mistake of firing him directly following his diagnosis. This is a terrible look on the company, and probably a really hard blow at Greg while he’s clearly got a lot going on in his personal life as well.
One thing I would also like to point out is this request of fans to help him “reclaim” the role. I could go on for a while about my opinions around modern fanbases and my perspective on celebrity culture, but long story short he’s not about to get his job back just because enough people say so. It’s very strange to me this kinda thing we see a lot, seeming to represent that there’s power in numbers, but if it’s all digital and faceless- what does that actually represent? Seeing a large number on the internet of people who claim to support and agree with your cause, what does that even mean? Okay, you have people that agree with you. What action are they taking to support getting your job back? Maybe I’m being a hater. But what does it mean to have fans “help reclaim” a role?
This article does not seem to have nearly enough information on the situation. It seems as though Greg Cipes announced being fired very recently, but I would assume that Warner Bros would immediately want to publicly respond. Not doing so implies that the company has something to hide, indicating that Cipes had merit to his claims that he was fired for his Parkinson's diagnosis. This post also follows a long pattern of disabled people being fired or hidden from public-facing jobs. Excuses I often hear from companies include that disabled people might turn the public away from a show or that disabled people might not be able to do their job as well as able-bodied people. Especially in a media company, representation of disabled people has quite the opposite effect: making viewers feel included in the story that shows are telling. This creates a community around inclusive media that could not be possible without disabled actors and stories.
I was never fully committed to this show, but I did see it on TV a lot as a child and my heart breaks everytime I hear someone that made us laugh as a child was going through something so difficult behind the scenes (which happened a lot with Nickelodeon…) The article is very brief so I feel as though there is a lot more to this story that either the actor or Warner Bros wants to keep private for now, so it was definitely hard to follow the story. Either way, the discrimination towards people with disabilities in the entertainment industry is absolutely disgusting and disheartening. As someone that has worked extensively with people with disabilities, there is so much talent and potential that people in the entertainment industry refuse to see because of their own bias. I hope that in the future Hollywood learns to be more inclusive and accommodating towards everyone with disabilities – whether they got one after a diagnosis or were born with it.
Post a Comment