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Don't Play Me, Pay Me...

AGXStarseed

AGXStarseed

Well-Known Member
I came across this quite recently and decided to share it.

In 2008, the BBC created a TV Movie adaption of the Jacqueline Wilson book Dustbin Baby (released by Jacqueline in 2001). The story focuses on a troubled teenager named April (played by Dakota Blue Richards, who most notably played Lyra in The Golden Compass), who was abandoned in a dustbin when she was a baby, running away on her fourteenth birthday while her adoptive mother Marion searches for her.
April's life is recounted in flashbacks as she meets people and visits places that are significant to her.

Here is the trailer for the movie:

The film received many positive reviews and some awards, as well as Jacqueline Wilson saying it was the best film adaptation of any of her works.
One of the things that makes it stand out, however, is the character of Poppy. Poppy is a teenage girl who we see in one of April's flashbacks when she is staying at a residential school and is one of the people who April befriends.
We learn in the film that Poppy has Asperger Syndrome. However, what really made Poppy stand out is that the girl who played her - Lizzy Clark - also has Asperger Syndrome.

Lizzy auditioned for the role after her mother had seen the position advertised by the BBC on a website about autism (indicating the BBC were deliberately looking for someone with Aspergers for the role). Furthermore, Lizzy hadn't had any acting experience beforehand when she got the role although she is a big fan of Jacqueline Wilson's books.
Lizzy has said that been on set was intimidating at first and that her "Asperger's made some things on the film set difficult at first, like dealing with the sudden noise of the storyboard, but I was soon so focused on acting that I didn't notice anything else."
Despite this, Lizzy said that being on set was the best experience of her life.
Her mother congratulated the BBC, stating "it's incredibly positive that the BBC chose to find an actress who has the same condition as the character", while the BBC stated that the fact Clark also had the condition offered her a "unique take" on the role.

Lizzy is the first actress with Asperger syndrome to portray a fictional character with the condition. While this is good news, it may also raise concerns; why has no media industry beforehand chose to find someone with the condition when portraying a character on the Autistic Spectrum?

Some time after Lizzy's role in the film, her mother started a campaign called "Don't Play Me, Pay Me". The campaign aimed to stop non-disabled actors from playing disabled characters.
The following is from Wikipedia:

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Her mother said that actors without mental disabilities playing characters with specific conditions is the "blacking-up of the 21st century", claiming that "we need to break down these barriers. They're unacceptable and indefensible in a modern-day society, especially when there are so many good, disabled actors who are both ready, eager and able to take on these parts". Clark is heavily involved in the campaign, and said that

It is not just mentally disabled actors who lose out when non-disabled people are employed to act them. Audiences think they are getting an authentic portrayal of a mentally disabled person, but they're not. It's not like putting on a different accent or learning what it was like to be raised in a different era. You can't understand what it is like to have a mental disability unless you've really lived with it. When non-disabled people try to portray us, they tend to fall back on stereotypes that have done our community so much harm in the past.

Targets of the campaign include setting up a forum for mentally disabled actors, and "to see disabled actors playing parts where the least interesting thing about them is their disability." As part of the campaign, her mother, who was an aspiring actress herself, asked stage schools to be more pro-active in encouraging the enrollment of students with disabilities.

---

The campaign's website is here: http://www.dontplaymepayme.com/index.html


So what do you think about this?
 
It's acting, a good actor will do his or her research and, present an accurate portrayal of a disabled person whether the actor has that disability or not.

I do think something needs to be done about those few that don't make the effort or , intentionally misrepresent a disability or disabled person but, I don't thing an actor should be required to have a given disability to portray a character with that disability.

To me that's like saying you have to be Jewish to play a Jew or, Muslim to play an Islamic character, or you have to be Native American to play one in a film. That's crazy, a good actor can play any role they are give, ACTING is what they do. To me what this woman wants is no different than women not getting certain jobs or having to work twice as hard to gain half the respect of a man doing that job. In short what she is asking amounts to reverse discrimination.

Maybe it would do non disabled people some good to be discriminated against for not having a disability but, the workplace, and that includes acting, is not the place to teach that lesson.
 
I see their point. I don't have an opinion either way yet, but they definitely do have a point. I'd really like to see a counter argument to this. This is interesting and I hadn't thought about it that way before.
 
Having read through the campaign website, I can understand both sides of the argument.
We've had actors playing Autistic individuals before, but the general reaction from the Autism community regarding these portrayals definitely varies between individuals, such as some people liking Rain Man and other people hating it.

For me, I like Tom Hanks' performance as Forrest in Forrest Gump, I like Jay Underwood's performance as Eric in The Boy who could Fly and I like Yanin "Jeeja" Vismistananda's performance as Zen in Chocolate. At the same time, other Autistics could watch these films and hate the portrayals.
With Lizzy's performance in Dustbin Baby, we at least know that someone with the condition is actually playing a role they can do because they've lived with it all their lives.
Does that mean their overall performance is going to be good or positive? Maybe, but again I think it will come down to people's opinions.

At the same time, I think authentic and positive portrayals are needed - especially since disability's general portrayal in the media is often not accurate and can be discriminatory; especially since there are some celebrities who can seeming mock the disabled and use the word 'retard' without receiving major consequence for their actions.
In contrast, if these celebrities mocked other groups and used words that were racist or sexist, etc. they would get in a lot of trouble very quickly.
This article explains more: http://disability-studies.leeds.ac.uk/files/library/Barnes-Media.pdf
 
Yes, I actually like it when a celebrity uses a derogatory term for any given group of people and gets zero negative feedback and, very little notice is taken. 50/50 odds that it's an intentional sensationalism play, intended to spark negative recations and, the ensuing media storm. Migh be the celebrity really is a total tool and does talk like that in life but, it's just as likely to be intentional and, when they fail to get media attention or any great reaction, if it was a media attempt, has been thwarted.

I've had to do it too, but I still detest creating controversy or scandal intentionally, just for the media attention it gets and, it's quite amusing when it fails miserably. Serves them right for trying that sort of stunt. LOL (Yes it's still funny even when it's a stunt my publicist puts me up to and it fails - that's on her for trying it to start with.)
 
Attempting to take a step back from a myopic and/or politically correct view, I see anyone getting into a creative endeavor that they enjoy and getting paid for it as generally positive. It is a step forward for the actress, and it is up to her now whether to pursue her interest and another try for another film part, whether that part represents a person with Asperger's or NT.
 
So, would actors with Aspergers only get roles portraying characters with Aspergers? Because one could also say they couldn't possibly know what it's like to be neurotypical.
 
AGXStarseed said:
Having read through the campaign website, I can understand both sides of the argument.
We've had actors playing Autistic individuals before, but the general reaction from the Autism community regarding these portrayals definitely varies between individuals, such as some people liking Rain Man and other people hating it.
Click to expand...
The thing is...if a movie's portrayal of a disability is flawed...is that really because of the actor, and would it be fixed just by getting an actor with the disability?
I'm inclined to doubt it. And in most of the movies where I disliked the portrayal of a character's disability (most notably 'Adam') the problem was with the screenplay, not with the actor.
In addition, the fact that an actor has a disability doesn't necessarily make him/her a good actor-even if playing a disabled character. Someone could write a screenplay about me, and cast me to play myself-even if playing myself, I might not do a good job.
That being said, there still is something about this movement that I like. I don't think we should consider it reverse-discrimination-acting is different than other professions in that they most definitely do or don't hire you on the basis of characteristics which it would be wrong to base hiring choices on in any other profession. They can say-that is the physical look that we want for the part-and choose someone over someone else because of their appearance. They can say "that actor is the wrong race to play this historical character in this history-inspired movie" and choose someone else on the basis of race. Hiring practices are already different than in other fields.
 
Beverly said:
To me that's like saying you have to be Jewish to play a Jew or, Muslim to play an Islamic character, or you have to be Native American to play one in a film. That's crazy, a good actor can play any role they are give, ACTING is what they do.
Click to expand...


Although that might be a bit awkward to potentially explain to a method actor.

I'm reminded of one who thought it would be effective to stay up more than 24 hours before filming a scene to reflect exhaustion from torture. Unfortunately it worked a bit too well to the point where the actor had difficulty just doing the scene.

Where upon an exasperated Sir Laurence Olivier suggested to the method actor (Dustin Hoffman), "My boy why don't you simply ACT?" :p

 
I've heard about that before, I think it makes a lot of sense. It's harder to people on the spectrum to find employment so hiring us is s great idea. Plus who knows autism better than an autistic person.
 
Upon reflection...this could backfire. If an NT can't play someone with AS, then who are we to claim that people with AS can play NTs?
And, as has been discussed in another thread, there are successful actors and other well known figures with AS. We just don't know who all of them are, as they haven't all "come out" about it.

Anyway, I think that misportrayals of AS are usually the fault of things other than the actor. And sometimes there was no misportrayal-there was simply a problem of people basing all their "knowledge" off of a movie.
 
I don't think anyone's saying it is inherently wrong to portray a character who is assigned to a different category from the actor's. The problem is autistic actors get passed over for autistic roles, or for roles in general. It's not as if we have scads of autistics portraying neurotypical characters. Autistics are disproportionately underemployed and unemployed. Why is it so easy to get outraged about autistics wanting a piece of the action?
 
Very true ancusmitis but there are far more NT actors that ASD actors and, with a good percentage of the ASD actors not making their ASD known, sometimes not even to producers and directors, it's hard to know exactly how often an actor on the spectrum portrays an NT or, how many are not passed over for roles because the production company doesn't know they are on the spectrum when they give them the role.

In society as a whole, yes, those on the spectrum are markedly unemployed or under employed and, that does need to change. Of course we deserve as big of a piece of the action as anyone else, but to deny NT actors from a role portraying someone on the spectrum is no better than denying an actor on the spectrum from playing the role of an NT.
 
I see this campaign as trying to open doors for those with disabilities. I don't see it as trying to ensure all disabled characters are portrayed by disabled actors. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting things but it doesn't sound like they are wanting to take over the world, so to speak. Rather to engender positive change, open eyes, and empower those with disabilities. To bring some balance.

The campaign aims talk about encouragement. Encouragement for disabled people to pursue their dreams.

(In feminism/sexual equality/women's rights discussions it's inevitable that the tired refrain "what about men's rights?" will surface pretty quickly. Since the bible was translated from Hebrew and implied god had cursed Eve things have been skewed against women. Is bringing balance somehow equal to discriminating against men? Certainly not. I see this campaign as something similar: trying to bring about a better balance, because we all know things have been skewed against people with disabilities.)
 
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