I’m taking a break from the books today to talk to you about disabled actors. Having disabled actors in movies and in mainstream roles on TV is important for multiples reasons. It’s about representation, about seeing someone whose body looks and acts like yours, and it’s about authenticity. With method actors such as Jared Leto pretending to be disabled on set to learn how to be disabled for a role, “cripping up” is happening more often.

Let’s take a moment to look at the statistics.

In GLAAD’s Where We Are On TV report for 2021 – 2022 the amount of series regular characters with disabilities for US TV shows was only 2.8 percent and that had decreased from 3.5 the year before. That’s only 19 characters out of 775. The report doesn’t specify how many of those characters were played by disabled actors, but considering The Ruderman White Paper in 2016 showed that only 5% of all characters on American TV are played by disabled actors, I think we can safely say that the percentage is not many.

It’s even worse over here in the UK. Watch TV Abroad conducted a

Let’s take a moment to look at the statistics.

In GLAAD’s Where We Are On TV report for 2021 – 2022 the amount of series regular characters with disabilities for US TV shows was only 2.8 percent and that had decreased from 3.5 the year before. That’s only 19 characters out of 775. The report doesn’t specify how many of those characters were played by disabled actors, but considering The Ruderman White Paper in 2016 showed that only 5% of all characters on American TV are played by disabled actors, I think we can safely say that the percentage is not many.

It’s even worse over here in the UK. Watch TV Abroad conducted a Diversity in UK TV survey in 2022 by looking at the ten most watched terrestrial TV shows in the UK. Out of 309 characters they found that only 5 were disabled.

Whenever the topic of disabled characters being played by people who are actually disabled gets brought up, there are always the same things being said. Many of those things are myths; arguments that people are repeating that they heard somewhere, but they’re not founded in fact!

Let’s break them down:

1. Unknown Actors don’t sell tickets

The main reason that many disabled actors are unknown is that they’re not given the opportunity to show their talents. They’re judged for their disabilities, not their acting skills. Change is beginning to happen, however, it is slow with more disabled actors headlining shows and movies.

2. No one will want to watch it

There’s always that lingering question of whether the “it” is the product or the disability, and more often than not they mean disability. At the 2020 Olympics, the WeThe15 campaign was launched. It highlights the fact that 15% of the world’s population are disabled. Add to that the amount of people who are connected to a disabled person in some way, whether they are family, friends, associates, carers or medical professionals and that is a whole lot of people who have an interest in seeing disabled actors on screen.

There is definitely an audience.

3. Disabled actors are not attractive

This one always mystifies me because not every non-disabled actor is attractive. In fact, there’s many who have made a career based on their skills as an actor, not their appearance. Shocking I know. The idea that disability is unattractive is ingrained in our society and has been for hundreds of years. I think a lot of people would be shocked to know just how many disabled actors and celebrities there are out there. This list of Famous People with Disabilities by Ongig was even surprising to me, and I thought I quite educated on the subject.

Take a moment to look at that list. I think you’ll be surprised how many people are on it, especially names that you’ll usually find on the top “hottest ….” lists.

4. No one wants the reality

The idea that the audience do not want reality is a huge myth. Let’s consider the miniseries Chernobyl which dramatized the story of the April 1986 nuclear plant disaster. It has received widespread critical acclaim with many commenting on it’s attention to the truth, and with astrophysicist David Morrison stating that it  “does an outstanding job of presenting the technical and human issues of the accident”. The miniseries has received countless awards and nominations.

Being disabled is complicated. It’s messy, painful, awkward and yes, at times, it’s depressing. But it’s also amazing, joyous, passionate and filled with love. Our lives are different. Too many times, non-disabled people have told our story without us and, as a result, the view is that our lives are too depressing and too painful to live. Just as there’s an audience for shows like Chernobyl, for soap operas that run storylines based on everyday lives, and reality TV shows, there are people who want to see disabled characters played by disabled characters. People who want to see themselves and the people they know represented authentically on screen.

5. Disabled actors have limitations

Another argument is that the same disabilities that make disabled actors perfect for their role would limit them from doing scenes, especially action scenes or flash back scenes. For example, in a storyline where a character became disabled they would not be able to play that character. Well, there’s a very simple solution to that and one that the entertainment industry already uses; body and stunt doubles.

These are just some of the arguments that people continue to give for why non-disabled actors should play disabled characters despite there being plenty of skilled disabled actors available. There are many other myths, many other barriers, and I hope that this post has given you a few things to think about. So next time you watch a TV show or a movie with a disabled character in it, take a moment to check to see if the actor is disabled.

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