Non-Disabled Actors Playing Disabled Roles

In 2020, the well-known and successful singer, Sia, directed a movie called “Music” which starred Maddie Ziegler as the non-verbal, autistic protagonist. Soon after the trailer was released, disability activists began speaking out. They were upset at the fact that autistic leading character was portrayed by a very well-able bodied dancer who did not understand the real discrimination that disabled individuals face.

“This is totally unacceptable and there are no excuses, you should know better than to allow able bodied & neurotypical to represent the disabled community. It’s incredibly offensive as is the infantalisation of the character. Sickened. And not even captioned. Don’t release this,” said Jordana Golbourn on Twitter, who was extremely upset with Sia’s decision to not cast a real member of the disabled community as the disabled character in her film.

Within the disabled community, the portrayal of disabled characters by able bodied individuals is known as “cripping up” — which is continually justified by non-disabled actors and casting directors in many ways. “Cripping up” is often justified as just another way of having an actor use their skills to bring a life different to their own to the stage or screen, when really it is disrespectful and discriminatory to a community of people who really face those issues on a day to day basis. Films such as Me Before You, where Sam Claflin, an able bodied man, portrays a quadriplegic character, and Music, Sia’s film about a non-verbal Autistic girl, have been criticised for their lack of awareness for the disabled community, as both star non-disabled actors playing disabled characters though many disabled people could take on these roles and be very successful.