Concluding thoughts!!!

My idea in doing this series was simple at first, the goal was to argue that directors of movies and TV shows are doing a disservice to individuals with disabilities by having actors without those disabilities play those roles. After examining the cases of ten TV shows and movies, five of which have characters with Autism or Down Syndrome and five of which have characters who are wheelchair-bound, I realized the argument was not as straightforward as I had originally thought. While there are actors with these disabilities looking for TV shows and movies to star in, many of them struggle with the nature of their disability and would like to be without the disability in some sense, but the culture of actors with these disabilities is quite different. To begin I am going to examine the culture of actors with Autism and Down Syndrome. The nature of these disabilities makes it difficult to live. For actors who have these conditions, their natural state of being is often perceived to be quite quirky. In general, it has been my observation that three of the five TV shows and movies I examined with characters with these conditions tried at first to have an actor with these conditions in that role, but it was too challenging for the individual. It was difficult for the actors with Autism or Down Syndrome to conceptualize that their characters had the same condition as them, especially if the character was on a different part of the spectrum from the actor. As a result, none of these movies or TV shows were able to work with the actors that had the condition because they struggled too much to understand and conceptualize that the character they were playing was like them. In my reflection on the situation, I believe that it has something to do with the nature of these conditions. Based on my examination of the conditions and these shows it seems that actors with Autism and Down Syndrome are best in roles where their character is quirky, but not on the spectrum of Autism or Down Syndrome. As for the culture of actors and characters who are wheelchair-bound, the situation is a bit different. An actor who is wheelchair-bound for the most part is perfectly capable of playing a character who is also wheelchair-bound. There is not a shortage of actors who are wheelchair-bound, at least there are enough of them to fill the roles where the character is in this situation. The major issue is that many of the TV shows and movies where a character is wheelchair-bound are because of a trauma that happens during the plot. In many cases based on my examination of the five cases in this blog series, actors who are wheelchair-bound struggle to play in TV shows and movies with a dramatic plot where the character gets injured. A major reason for this is that acting out the drama can bring back negative memories and feelings about the accident or injury that left the actor wheelchair-bound. Therefore, the issue is not about the actor and character connection or ability, but the trauma that playing in such a plot can cause for the actor. As a result, many directors end up working with non-wheelchair-bound actors for these roles, especially since for part of the plot the character is not injured and has total movement and control of their body. In some cases, where the TV show or movie has a large enough budget it might be possible to hire a second actor who is wheelchair-bound to play those scenes, however, it requires money and the ability to find two actors who look similar enough to portray the same character on screen. Therefore it is my recommendation that directors and the acting community consider the role of characters with various disabilities to ensure they are properly represented. It appears based on my evaluation of the ten TV shows and movies that I have evaluated over the semester that it will not always be possible to have a good match of actor and character with the same disability either due to the nature of the disability or what the plot requires of the individual, especially if it is dramatic.