Adam Pearson Speaks Out Against How Actors with Disabilities Are Only Offered Certain Types of Roles: ‘Lazy Writing’

by stars_doulikedem

29 comments

  1. I would love to hear what roles he think he could have done

  2. I’m pretty sure the writers are not also the casting directors

  5. He said that people with disabilities either get cast as the villain, the victim, or the hero. Well what else do you want?

  6. I’m sure this particular disability could just be cleverly hand waved for most roles

  8. He could write a script for the disabled. It’s pretty lazy that he doesn’t.

  9. No one has read the article and it shows. Hes not saying be should be the lead in the next marvel movie, he is saying disabled ppl are written in 3 very limiting tropes: the disfigured villain, the pitful woe is me character, or the hero for just doing normal things.

  10. These other comments are pretty negative… I’ll just say that Pearson has a point – writers *could* put more effort into writing roles to creatively involve actors with different disabilities, though is this the tail wagging the dog? Not all stories have the creative room to plug in whoever into whatever role, while also remaining relatable, believable, true, and entertaining.

  12. Well, they could always go back to pretending you don’t exist.

  14. What the fuck does he think his options should be? This is dumb as fuck.

  15. Typical “personal gripes shrouded as calls out to the industry”

    Homie just wants the Peter Dinklage treatment.

  16. There’s an icky point under the surface here. From a pure filmmaking POV, sorry – the visibility disabled are complicated to include in movies since they would interfere with the audience’s interpretation of the main story.

    But…

    I just sat through Wonka, whose story is actually supposed to take place in a real setting, and we have all these completely anachronistic DEI casting choices crammed into it (and in a twist, they intentionally don’t cast a little person as an Oompa Loompa for the sake of…inclusion).

    So filmmakers are going through hoops to do inclusion-based casting these days yet the disabled are just “gross guy #1” or “dwarf #2”.

    He has a point. Either make art or just include everyone. This halfway stuff is ick.

  17. RJ Mitte as Walter White Jr is maybe an example of doing it right?

    Breaking Bad was definitely not lazy writing!

    Maybe Millicent Simmonds in A Quiet Place too?

  18. He could always become Clayface for the Batman 2 or something

  19. The casual ableism in this thread, Reddit never changes

  20. I dislike how actors don’t consider voice work as acting. I’ve grown to appreciate animation and voice actors.

  21. They are filming The Last of Us season 2 soon right? Dudes got a shot right there

  22. I’d rather watch anything else. Maybe he should just get into voice acting

  25. I mean, what is he suggesting? There are quite a bit of disabled people in various roles. I’m really not trying to be a dick here; but obviously he isn’t going to be the next Bond.

  26. Ehhhhh,

    I’m sorry. I’m incredibly progressive and would love to see disabled people getting as much representation as possible

    But it’s not lazy writing to make Luke Skywalker capable of seeing or walking.

    I know that’s almost a strawman argument but for a major, debilitating disability that could and in most cases would halt a lot of stories that aren’t directly around the disability.

    Could there be more casual roles? Absolutely. But I just don’t fully jive with his presentation on this.

  27. I mean what did you expect? Lazy writing is that no stories are written about people with disabilities. Its not like he could take on the role of Ken in Barbie. No one would watch that. Start writing your own scripts instead of whining.

  28. Just to be clear: he became an actor for his visible disability and now wants everyone to take him seriously as a actor? It would be like Andre the Giant wondering where all his leading man roles were.

  29. Not to be rude or anything, but how many roles can he fit with a face like that?

Leave a Reply