Would you like to see an aspie play a villain in a movie?

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Most aspie movies seem to be a 'hey, they are people just like you and me.' I'd like to see an aspie mastermind trying to take over the world or a computer genuis thief that reroutes the world's money transfers. I think aspies would make great villains. I suppose I don't want to see one portrayed as a psychopath or as a serial killer that could give off a negative image. Don't you think portraying an aspie as a villain would make people dismiss the clueless fool or rainman stereotypes, and replace it with a more healthy respect?

Okay so you want a villain with a positive image? Basically you want an aspie Robin Hood?

edit: told from the prospective of Prince John or the Sheriff.

Last edited by Pistonhead on 05 Dec 2010, 10:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

It would be refreshing, but it also would be refreshing to see an aspie protagonist (like a protagonist as in one who saves the world, not lives everyday life).

I think there is quite a few movies like that, they just don't specify that the guy/girl is an Aspie.

Thing is NT's seem to think that autism is a weakness not a strength and that we are lacking intellectually. It wouldn't be believable to them so it wouldn't sell to the masses. To me, yeah it would be nice to see us shown in a more realistic light, loose any and all negative.

Any and all negative? You could go watch The Passion if you wanted to see a perfect person. Really people do not care for perfect characters. Take Twilight for example. You've got a totally unstable teenage girl, a guy who doesn't know whether to go or stay and a hot headed guy. Millions of fans.

If you want an aspie character to open NTs up to the idea that we are smart you need to take for example a guy in his early 20s who for some reason ends up in jail or is addicted to some medicine and taking it illegally and ends up destroying his relationship with someone because of his mistakes. Hell even if he just cheats on a girl and attempts suicide and ends up in a mental ward it will make the character something that the audience can try to understand.

ok here's an example, not as a villain but as the hero, Batman could very well be an aspie, or at least he seems to have quite a few Aspie traits, for instance he doesn't smile much and his face is not very expressive generally (with and without the mask), he is not very social generally (other then the social event once in a while), has one best friend (in some movies, Robin), he is very focused on his special interest, which is to help people while wearing a costume ... I'm trying to think of other traits, he probably has more ...

Although this is an idea that I have for a home made comic book that I'll be working on with a mate of mine in the new year (but will still make a good few movies anyway) I've long thought that it would be a good idea to do a story about a child action hero (not unlike The Punisher) who goes round beating up and even killing the bullies in his school!

He could also have AS, and I have a name for him...

To his few friends his name is Adam Grant, but, to everyone else he is 'Deliquescent Destroyer' who along with his side kick 'Pom-Pom' (a cheerleader who goes by the name of Brittany Spirit) who battles all said bully's and child abusers Punisher/Batman style.

Just an idea...

He/She doesn't have to be a good person at all. I think playing a smart bad guy would force people to look at people on the spectrum in a different light. Aspergers is a facet of the character, but does not define the personality or actions of the person. I think having aspergers if done well could provide depth to the character. I ruled out a character with aspergers playing a psychopath, even though I think that would be cool to, because I am afraid that would form new stereotypes in people's minds about what aspergers is.


What can I say, I like bad guys. I find them much more interesting and richer than the typical good guy. They are more memorable in people's minds. Most of the time they are smarter and better prepared, and the hero comes in and blocks his efforts usually by blind luck or by using his magnetic personality. Most heros would be killed in a matter of minutes, if it wasn't for movie magic. Even the anti-hero overcoming their flaws and past aren't as interesting as a well done villain. Heros are for happy movie endings and a place for the girl to run to and fall in love.

Darth Vader costumes out sell Luke Skywalker costumes every Holloween.
Villians are often more fascinating than heroes to the public in general.

But an aspie villian- i dont know if the world is ready yet.

In the Jim Crow era Blacks were depicted like Steppinfetchit- comically pathetic figures.
In the early post civil rights decades Blacks started to be shown as sexy and competent heroes- By Sidney Portier for Whites, and by Richard Roundtree for Blacks.

Only after a long stint at this second stage was it acceptable to show Blacks as competent villians.

Even today truly evil Black characters are somewhat rare on either screen.

So now that the public is only just now discovered asperger's do you really want the public to associate the condition with crime? Or would you rather wait 30 years to when there might be aspie cinema heroes in the public consciousness?

Youd have to be careful how you do it.
It would have to be very tongue-in-cheek.

Maybe you can have an aspie geek who gets back at all of the NT jocks who kicked sand in his face in highschool through somekind of geeky cyber crime.

I had a similiar idea for the backstory of a certain TV character.
The geeky (but not necessarily aspie-but not necessarily not aspie) Dr.Epps -the young math genius who works for the FBI in the TV show "Numbers."

He should be given a painful chapter in his adolesence when he broke his parents hearts by "falling in with the wrong crowd" and took to petty crime.

In my imagination he and his circle of friends got tired of playing Dungeons and Dragons one day and decided to conceal their geekiness by dressing like high rollers so they could use their math skills to count cards at the black jack tables in Vegas or Atlantic City.

They have a brief stint of success milking the house for huge bucks by card counting.
But then the vegas or atlantic city thugs take em into a back room and threaten to break thier knee caps unless their parents drive cross counry to bail them out.

This incident is still a painful memory for Dr Epps parents. The point is that like most adolesent guys he went through a deliquent phase, but he was deliguent in his own four-eyed,math-geek, kinda way that would be humorously in character!

No.

An aspie could quite possibly make an interesting protagonist if the film were, say, a psychological sci-fi thriller.

Yeah, but I don't think the public is ready for that yet.

Did I say I wanted to see an autistic person as the perfect character/person? I don't remember writing that, yet.

RE: Twilight comparison. It's not just Twilight. Vampires always have attracted a large fanbase. Attractive, sensual, seductive, mysterious and dangerous. All the things NT teenage girls are told to stay away from (by parents) are of course the things teenage girls are going to chase after (rebel). These NT teenage girls are going to disagree with you saying they aren't interested in a 'perfect' character, to them vampires are perfect, especially their Edward. 'Perfect' way to express independence yada, yada.

I don't understand your second example at all. How is an unstable and suicidal character who makes a ton of personal mistake going to portray an autie as 'smart'? Sounds more like an NT then and autie to begin with. And that only portrays us as weak again.

There are people on the spectrum who work in EMS, doctors, coast guard.. many, many other positive roles that would be far more interesting a tale then a drug addict and far more positive. Not all people on the spectrum having little to nothing going for them, drug addicts and or heavily reliant on others for daily support. It's a wide spectrum. It would be nice to see a positive movie about us to give variety.

Do you deny it still?



People learn from mistakes, people who don't make mistakes don't go anywhere in life. I'm sure you offend every aspie here that has ever punched his head through a wall, cut his wrist, held a gun to his own head, swallowed a bottle of pills, gotten addicted to porn, drugs etc.

EMS, coast guard, etc. bore people. Nobody wants to watch a movie about how an prevented Hector Gonzalez from getting from Cuba to Miami in a canoe, how an aspie used a defibrillator to save someones life. Now doctors, who do you think is the most popular doctor on TV? The non-existent doctor that spends 50% of his income on charity, never even tried weed, goes to church 3 days a week, drives a Prius, never killed a fly, etc. Could it be Dr. House? Yes it could, I'm not sure how the current ratings are but Dr. House has spent time in a mental hospital, has been addicted to pills, is sometimes an as*hole to his coworkers, etc.

Why does it matter? Do you see people care when a black, or Jewish, or homosexual, etc. person is a villain in a movie? It's irrelevant. As long as it doesn't maliciously insult people with Autism or similar I don't see it ever being a big deal.

Why not?