(bouncy music)
(swooshing)
(hinge creaking)
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^(bell rings)
^- Artie from Glee is played by an actor
who's this incredible dancer,
which feels very ironic to me.
I get it when you're casting a big name so that the show
or the movie is getting more reviews
or you have a name behind it, but this kid,
I think was an unknown.
- I appreciate that the show is trying to promote diversity
by having a disabled character like Artie,
but I think he could have possibly been handled
in a little more of a sensitive way.
- So he's having some sort of, a dream of sorts,
where he's dancing in the mall.
I mean, you can dance in a wheelchair.
- I think they were trying to show how much he wants
to be like how he was before he became disabled.
And that's real.
But I don't think portraying that through a dance sequence
where he's suddenly so sad to be back in his chair again,
and he's back to being disabled again,
I don't think that is the right way to show that.
- I'm picturing every kid at home who has a disability
who watched that and was like, feeling like,
"Should I be dreaming about not having this?"
Or, "Should I be wishing that I don't have this?"
Instead of, "How do I love what makes me me?"
- And I think it would have been a lot more powerful
to maybe show him going through
an arc where he reaches self-acceptance and self-love,
rather than trying to change his circumstances.
- You know, he plays guy in wheelchair.
And guy in wheelchair wants to walk.
Ooo, what a shocking story arc.
It doesn't offend me anymore, I just feel
like it's lazy writing.
- If they had a writer or maybe somebody there
with the experience that Artie has,
^that scene would have been treated differently.
^- Hi, Becky.
^About Friday night.
^- Are you excited?
- Well, I kind of thought Becky was the Band-Aid.
Becky was them being like, "We messed up.
"We messed up the first time around."
- I think any casting of any disabled actor,
I am all for it.
- I loved Becky from Glee.
I love her.
She is a character with Down Syndrome
who also has Down Syndrome in real life.
And her character was dynamic and funny,
and sometimes a bitch, and I loved that.
Sometimes people with disabilities are bitches.
Sometimes I'm a bitch.
It just felt authentic and real.
- I don't think we should date.
- Is it because I'm too intimidating?
(laughs)
- I love her.
- Yeah.
- Okay, so this plays into a whole 'nother thing.
Whole 'nother?
Whole other?
Doesn't matter.
People with disabilities date, but we don't always have
^to date people with disabilities.
^- Auggie, I'm sorry, but you're not the only one
^who has bad days.
^- Bad days?
^Do people avoid touching you?
^When a person accidentally touches you,
^do they call it the plague?
- So, I just watched "Wonder," and I wanted to love it,
and I really struggled with the movie.
- I'm glad that they validate the struggle
of going through an experience like disability
that is so isolating.
It's difficult feeling like an outsider.
- I remember being like, "Please give another kid the award,
"please give another kid the award."
- We shouldn't just be getting awards
for basically living our life.
- I won a character award when I was in high school.
I was like, "What?"
(snorts)
(laughs)
Just sort of the same thing.
Yay, you're different!
- I don't know, I think it's a little bit tricky
to have a disabled character that gets an award
because they're disabled, but I love that it's more because
of the courage and the heart that they have.
- Inspiration porn, this is inspiration porn.
Everyone's brave, we're all doing things that scare us,
disability or otherwise.
^- I am not to be pitied, I'm here, and I'm hard to kill.
^- [Woman] How's it coming in there?
^- Fine.
- RJ Mitte, oh good, yay.
- For me, Walter Jr. is a perfect example
of a character that represents the community.
- He's an incredible actor.
He's incredible.
And I don't say an incredible actor with a disability,
he's just an incredible actor.
- I was just really excited.
I remember watching the show for the first time,
and hearing about his being cast
and that he has cerebral palsy, and I have cerebral palsy.
I've never seen, this was the first actor that I have seen
of my age that I've gotten to watch.
- Oh, this is from the pilot.
Oh yeah, I remember this as a kid.
(laughs)
- I feel that.
- [Woman] Do you want me, or your dad?
- Getting stuck in a dressing room, ugh!
It's the worst.
- Dad.
- And I remember that too, when I first became an amputee.
It wasn't like it was easily readily available
for me to get dressed or how to figure it out,
how to get dressed.
- This is actually something similar that happened with me
in terms of finding coats and stuff.
- I don't know, in a super teeny-tiny way,
it's very very silly, but I love
that we have similar hands somehow, or we move similarly,
I don't know, I just think that's very cool.
You don't see that.
Or I don't see that very much.
I don't know, I would just watch him,
and be like, "We move similarly.
"We kind of, we get through similar situations."
It's validating.
- It's three-dimensional.
We at least see this kid as part of a family,
as part of his world, and his storyline again,
^isn't just disability.
^- You're hiding, huh?
^(laughs)
^I know that.
(laughs)
- This is gonna be fun.
- Arnie from What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Leonardo DiCaprio.
I loved this movie as a kid, but I re-watched it as an adult
and I struggled with how they justified
having Leonardo DiCaprio play a kid with a disability.
- Well, it's like watching old World War II films
that are completely racist, and you're just like,
"Wow, the way they represent this group of people, and that,
"it's insulting."
- I do agree, I think it's definitely a product of it's time
and I think we're still kind of working on trying
to figure out what's acceptable in terms
of who should we cast to play certain roles.
- [Narrator] Doctor said we'd be lucky
if Arnie lived to be 10.
- Doctor said we'd be lucky if Arnie lived to be 10.
It's clear that he's not gonna die by 10.
So they start the movie out
with some pretty big misconceptions.
People assume disability means shorter lifespan,
and I think things like this don't help that narrative.
- This character is sort of served up on a platter
for able-bodied viewers of being like,
"Feel bad for this family for having this kind of child."
^- I'm guilty of being a dwarf.
^- You're not on trial for being a dwarf.
^- Oh, yes I am.
^I've been on trial for that my entire life.
- Yeah, there it is, Tyrion Lannister, that's the shit.
- I have such a crush on this man, such a crush on this man.
- There's a lot of things with Tyrion that I relate to
almost immediately.
- So so often we see little people being cast in the role
of comedic, the comedy role.
Enough with the lollipop guild.
I love that this is a drama, that there is more
to his storyline.
- I love how intelligent he is and how conniving he is,
and he's so funny.
- That is exactly the representation
that you're looking for.
That kind of validity, that kind of understanding
of what a community's going through,
that's the thing that we're talking about.
- So often the storyline around someone with a disability
is disability, like, that's the storyline.
And I think when they cast someone
who actually has a disability, almost always,
we get a more dynamic story.
- When I first became an amputee, I'd watch YouTube videos
on above and below knee amputees running or swimming,
and it made me feel like I could have a life.
If I could see someone who looks like me and is an amputee,
that would mean the world to me,
like that would be so amazing.
- Growing up, I never really had a movie, like,
I don't even remember if there were movies made
about disabled people when I was growing up.
Forrest Gump, and then Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Those were the only two that I remember.
- We want to be able to watch our stories,
and relate to them, and not sort of cringe, and go,
"Okay, well, this wasn't exactly written for us.
"It was written, inspire other people."
We want to be inspired.
We want to be inspired by our own gifts,
and our own talents, and our own stories and struggles,
and everything else, like, everybody else gets the privilege
to go to a movie and see themselves.
So I think we're making great steps as of right now,
but I think we can go a little bit further
in including more people with disabilities in those stories.
(swooshing)
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