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Autistic actors

Expecto_Patronum

I'm sure this topic will have come up before but I'm intrigued as to people's thoughts. It's something I see debated online a lot.

Some people are arguing that only autistic people should play autistic characters and as much as I can see where they are coming from, I have to disagree. The whole point of acting is to play someone that you're not. People will argue that a neurotypical person cannot know what it is like to be autistic. I'm sure the ones that play serial killers don't have any experience of that either but they do a perfectly good job.

Now I do think autistic people should be involved with the production of something with an autistic character. But I actually think the most important part is the writing of the character - that is whole different topic and I'm aware there are some poor portrayals of autistic characters out there but is that because of the actor or the character they've been given to play.

My concern of going down the route of it has to be an autistic person that plays this character is that you end up with type casting. 1. Autistic actors are likely to end up only ever being given autistic roles (they may be happy with that but it sounds restrictive in the world of acting) and by the same argument they have no idea what it's like to be NT so how could they play an NT character. 2. I know what it's like to be me. I don't know what it's like to be any other autistic person particularly those in different areas of the spectrum to me so by that logic, I can only play a character who has my autistic traits which basically means the part has to be written for me.

I'm aware others may not agree with me on this but it's one of those things that seems very logical to me and it baffles me a little bit that people feel so strongly the other way (I guess this is one of the reasons I have an autism diagnosis).

Parents

  • The most common autistic role seems to be that of a genius in recent Tv shows and films which doesn’t help portray the reality for most of us. The Big Bang Theory doesn’t outright say Sheldon is autistic but I mean anyone can see it. There’s also The Good Doctor with the doctor being somewhat of a medical genius also. 

  • in reply to Autismman

    Yes as I said. The actual autistic characters is a totally different debate. I'm not against the Sheldon's of the world being shown on TV. These people do exist, maybe not to the extent of Sheldon but the point of that is to exaggerate it to show the funny side and I'm personally ok with that. But it needs to be balanced with a range of presentations and not always for comedy but we're not there yet.

    But what ever your opinion on the character, the presentation of those characters is not down to the actor portraying it. They are portraying the character that was written for them.

  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    Of course, I don’t think it’s practical to have every actor diagnosed with a syndrome/disability/illness etc to play the part of someone who’s diagnosed with the same. It’s where equality ends up going round in a full circle back to inequality. Acting is acting after all and it’s not meant to be politicised in a way that society clicks their fingers and changes the rules. The best actor for the part decided by casting crew and directors makes more sense because they will know who’s the best fit for the story they are trying to tell. I believe everyone should be given a fair chance but only if it’s not dictated. 

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  • in reply to Expecto_Patronum

    Of course, I don’t think it’s practical to have every actor diagnosed with a syndrome/disability/illness etc to play the part of someone who’s diagnosed with the same. It’s where equality ends up going round in a full circle back to inequality. Acting is acting after all and it’s not meant to be politicised in a way that society clicks their fingers and changes the rules. The best actor for the part decided by casting crew and directors makes more sense because they will know who’s the best fit for the story they are trying to tell. I believe everyone should be given a fair chance but only if it’s not dictated. 

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