• Replies 23 replies
  • Subscribers 89 subscribers
  • Views 934 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

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
    Expecto_Patronum said:
    it needs to be balanced with a range of presentations and not always for comedy but we're not there yet.

    I don't think many of us lead a life that would translate to anything interesting for most audiences though.

    Any program will depend on some degree of popularity to get its funding so do have a show with a character with typical autistic traits may not get the views they want.

    It is that old supply / demand equation for entertainment.

    Add in the fact that many people do not want to see people with mental disorders as it is uncomfortable for them - then you have a real problem selling the idea of the show.

    It is a tricky one and I don't have a good solution to offer.

  • in reply to Iain

    I never said they had to live lives like ours, just be more representative of the average autistic person. E.g. not a super genius. For it to be representative of the average autistic person, you'd have to have multiple presentations. Not every autistic person doesn't talk much. In fact some would say that some of us talk too much. And people actually seem to quite enjoy watching an awkward interaction. They can still have interesting story lines just with autism factored in.

    I don't think the issue is that we aren't interesting enough. I think it's that we are massively misunderstood by those making the shows. They think that Sheldon and Rain man are actually what autism looks like. This is why where I don't see it necessary for autistic characters to be played by autistic actors, I do think it would be beneficial to have more autistic people in the creation and production of shows.

    There are many more examples of autism on TV than those that you have listed. It hopefully shows that times are turning but it seems it is doing it very slowly. The ones that seem to be most successful at it are actually directed at children. Quite a long time ago now there was an autistic character in a new power rangers movie. And more recently there was a show based on a book, both of which I really enjoyed called A Kind of Spark. This really captured autism in females and there were no geniuses or anything like that. It also showed how we can be unfairly treated and made a brilliant comparison to the days of "witches" being burned at the stake.

Reply
  • in reply to Iain

    I never said they had to live lives like ours, just be more representative of the average autistic person. E.g. not a super genius. For it to be representative of the average autistic person, you'd have to have multiple presentations. Not every autistic person doesn't talk much. In fact some would say that some of us talk too much. And people actually seem to quite enjoy watching an awkward interaction. They can still have interesting story lines just with autism factored in.

    I don't think the issue is that we aren't interesting enough. I think it's that we are massively misunderstood by those making the shows. They think that Sheldon and Rain man are actually what autism looks like. This is why where I don't see it necessary for autistic characters to be played by autistic actors, I do think it would be beneficial to have more autistic people in the creation and production of shows.

    There are many more examples of autism on TV than those that you have listed. It hopefully shows that times are turning but it seems it is doing it very slowly. The ones that seem to be most successful at it are actually directed at children. Quite a long time ago now there was an autistic character in a new power rangers movie. And more recently there was a show based on a book, both of which I really enjoyed called A Kind of Spark. This really captured autism in females and there were no geniuses or anything like that. It also showed how we can be unfairly treated and made a brilliant comparison to the days of "witches" being burned at the stake.

Children
No Data