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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

  • I am of the same opinion as you.

    Acting often involves becoming a different character in terms of age, skin tone, background, nationality, education, occupation and so on. Sometimes it involves playing a character with a life threatening illness, or becoming a bereaved character, being pregnant or someone of a different gender. 

    I cannot understand the argument that only autistic people should play autistic characters. I like watching autistic people play autistic characters, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t happen every time. 

Reply

  • I am of the same opinion as you.

    Acting often involves becoming a different character in terms of age, skin tone, background, nationality, education, occupation and so on. Sometimes it involves playing a character with a life threatening illness, or becoming a bereaved character, being pregnant or someone of a different gender. 

    I cannot understand the argument that only autistic people should play autistic characters. I like watching autistic people play autistic characters, but it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t happen every time. 

Children
  • in reply to ArchaeC

    I agree too, there's so many tropes, lazy writing and casting, the autistic genius, I don't know so much about the characters mentioned, but I remember Num3ers, an American cop show where the brother fo the detective was an autistic maths genius along with the equally autistic collegue solve crimes along with the detective brother. I get a bit annoyed by all the genius's, it's a particular trope with American programes that clever women seem to have to show ND behaviours, I think one of the worst was Bones, based very losely on Kathy Reichs character Temperance Brennan. I did like Patience though, I felt that charater was more realistic in the things she found overwhelming and her joy too. People forget that ND people can be happy and joyous as well as lonely and unhappy, we can live fulfiling lives too.

    I think Peter Dinklge must have been delighted to have a part like Tyrion Lannister in Gme of Thrones, people always seem to want anyone with an obvious disability to have no depth of character and to be the fall guy.

  • in reply to ArchaeC

    Precisely. I like seeing autistic actors on TV full stop whether they are playing ND or NT. I like to see us being represented in that world. I also like to see autism being represented in characters. When the 2 cross over, fantastic. When they don't, it's still great.