I was considering putting up a discussion post about "Ann Droid" (the BBC TV series) earlier today and my search on the site has suggested your thread as Marianne72 I agree Austin is great, The Detectorists, Ludwig and Small Prophets - likely stuff you've already been thro' but I thought that I'd mention them.
Happy viewing!
Phased
I gave Ann Droid a go and quite enjoyed it. It took me a couple of episodes to get into it but once I got used to the concept it was very enjoyable.
yes it is complicated Expecto_Patronum
shifting an "unknown unknown" into being a "known unknown" and then it becoming "known" is hard. In my personal case, perhaps for others, maybe in respect of the "double empathy problem" the struggle is about pretty profound misconceptions. Overturning the majority conception - even tho' it may be wrong - is something humanity as a whole seems to not find easy, so both you and I deserve to go easy on ourselves about it I think!
You make some great points about the actor thing.
I watched Shakespeare's "twelfth night" this summer - in it a woman character pretends to be a man. Initially, because of social restrictions, when it was performed it would have been a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man! Not so these days, women are allowed (well by a lot of human society anyway - maybe not enough yet...) - better equality perhaps. Another title for the play is "whatever you like" - maybe if there was true equality people would be able to act in whatever way they liked - personally I would exclude serial killers from that right too - hehe maybe I'm just not liberal enough - but one draws a line somewhere!
Your comment about by doing enough research a good actor may be able to play a broad range of characters might be a metaphor for the amount of effort an autistic person has to put into masking.
Yes I think that does make sense. Still blows my mind though. The brain is so complicated.
There are definitely times that a role needs to be played by a particular actor. If race is key to the role e.g. a film about slavery, then yes it should be played by an actor of that race. If it were a condition like downs syndrome then yes it makes sense the actor also had the condition as that is visual. I don't think it's a bad thing an autistic actor playing an autistic character, I just don't think it's essential. I also think that could cause a big problem with type casting and could also risk autistic actors only being hired for autistic characters. The same argument might be used against them that they don't have lived experience of being neurotypical. I think if you're a good actor then you're a good actor and as long as you've done your research you should be able to play a broad range of characters.
if the brain can attempt to fill those gaps with a mask, why can't it just do it
No I find it an interesting conversation. I find it fascinating that so many of us can mask to the degree we do. Masking isn't perfect by any means but isn't it weird that we don't have natural social skills in many ways, at least typically, but our brain manages to fill in at least some of the gaps. That comes at a great cost to us I know and masking doesn't necessarily give us the social skills neurotypical people have but it makes me wonder, if the brain can attempt to fill those gaps with a mask, why can't it just do it. Like I struggle with socialising but put me in a small professional meeting at work and I seem to have no issue communicating appropriately. How does that work? Blows my mind a little.
Yes I have made this argument before when autism portrayals have been debated. There has to be something that makes it interesting. Whether that be by it being funny, or emotional (in cases where the character is bullied etc) or because there is high drama. This might mean some of the traits are over exaggerated but they do that for many characters, not just autistic ones. The other thing I don't understand with people's criticism of autistic characters is they think they should only be played by autistic actors. Whilst I think it's important the actor has some understanding of autism to play the role, that is the entire point of acting. You wouldn't say that it had to be a gay person that played a gay character and you definitely wouldn't say you need a serial killer to play a serial killer so why does an autistic character need to be played by an autistic actor.
No I find it an interesting conversation. I find it fascinating that so many of us can mask to the degree we do. Masking isn't perfect by any means but isn't it weird that we don't have natural social skills in many ways, at least typically, but our brain manages to fill in at least some of the gaps. That comes at a great cost to us I know and masking doesn't necessarily give us the social skills neurotypical people have but it makes me wonder, if the brain can attempt to fill those gaps with a mask, why can't it just do it. Like I struggle with socialising but put me in a small professional meeting at work and I seem to have no issue communicating appropriately. How does that work? Blows my mind a little.
Yes I have made this argument before when autism portrayals have been debated. There has to be something that makes it interesting. Whether that be by it being funny, or emotional (in cases where the character is bullied etc) or because there is high drama. This might mean some of the traits are over exaggerated but they do that for many characters, not just autistic ones. The other thing I don't understand with people's criticism of autistic characters is they think they should only be played by autistic actors. Whilst I think it's important the actor has some understanding of autism to play the role, that is the entire point of acting. You wouldn't say that it had to be a gay person that played a gay character and you definitely wouldn't say you need a serial killer to play a serial killer so why does an autistic character need to be played by an autistic actor.
yes it is complicated Expecto_Patronum
shifting an "unknown unknown" into being a "known unknown" and then it becoming "known" is hard. In my personal case, perhaps for others, maybe in respect of the "double empathy problem" the struggle is about pretty profound misconceptions. Overturning the majority conception - even tho' it may be wrong - is something humanity as a whole seems to not find easy, so both you and I deserve to go easy on ourselves about it I think!
You make some great points about the actor thing.
I watched Shakespeare's "twelfth night" this summer - in it a woman character pretends to be a man. Initially, because of social restrictions, when it was performed it would have been a man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man! Not so these days, women are allowed (well by a lot of human society anyway - maybe not enough yet...) - better equality perhaps. Another title for the play is "whatever you like" - maybe if there was true equality people would be able to act in whatever way they liked - personally I would exclude serial killers from that right too - hehe maybe I'm just not liberal enough - but one draws a line somewhere!
Your comment about by doing enough research a good actor may be able to play a broad range of characters might be a metaphor for the amount of effort an autistic person has to put into masking.
Yes I think that does make sense. Still blows my mind though. The brain is so complicated.
There are definitely times that a role needs to be played by a particular actor. If race is key to the role e.g. a film about slavery, then yes it should be played by an actor of that race. If it were a condition like downs syndrome then yes it makes sense the actor also had the condition as that is visual. I don't think it's a bad thing an autistic actor playing an autistic character, I just don't think it's essential. I also think that could cause a big problem with type casting and could also risk autistic actors only being hired for autistic characters. The same argument might be used against them that they don't have lived experience of being neurotypical. I think if you're a good actor then you're a good actor and as long as you've done your research you should be able to play a broad range of characters.
if the brain can attempt to fill those gaps with a mask, why can't it just do it
