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invisibleboy
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30 Jun 2015, 7:12 pm

Ok, so I'm not a professional actor, but I'd like to be. I went to a professional college for acting and did reasonably well. I get roles in community productions and student films. I don't disclose to anyone that I have been diagnosed with autism, except for one play where we told personal stories and I wrote a monologue about my diagnosis. I'm definitely "different", but "different" is good, it makes me stand out. I'll probably never be the leading man, but I get the quirky characters, and those are more fun anyway.

Except for the specialist who diagnosed me (he labelled me as moderate to severe Aspergers), every non-experienced doctor I've come in contact with says that since I'm interested in acting, there's no way I could have autism. I think that's a pretty silly generalization to make, but so far I don't tell them what I think. Acting has helped me develop social scripts that let me pass as NT. Nobody knows that I've practiced the same strategies over and over and if you took me out of context I'd be lost. I've also figured out some sort of pattern for making friends through acting, it helps that during a production people get close very quickly, but I'm hopeless at making long lasting friendships or friendships outside of acting. I just keep repeating the befriending process every time I do a show, and have made some good friends that way but always end up losing touch after a few months to a few years, when our paths separate. I had one friend I made who had worked with kids with autism before and she knew I had it before I even told her, but everyone else says things like "no way, really?"

I know there have been autistic actors, and I'm wondering if anyone else here is interested in acting? It's one of my obsessions, actually.


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everybody's playing the game
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AspergersActor8693
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06 Jul 2015, 6:54 am

*See username* :wink:

I guess you could call it an obsession. I'm currently attending a University for a BA in theatre. It is considered to be one of the top ten schools in the U.S. for that degree. I've mostly done stuff that was through school, though I have been a part of a Shakespeare in the Park production twice. I am currently in a newly written show that will be performed in NYC as one of the leads. So us Aspies can get the big ones :) . I haven't done too much because I want to focus on my education than filling my resume with productions right now. Eventually I would like to break into film and voice-acting.

Acting for me has done the same for me as it has for you. It has greatly improved my social and communication skills more so than any speech therapy session could ever hope to achieve. I could probably pass as an NT if I really tried, probably can now.

Break a leg with your future acting endeavors! The industry needs more people like us on the stage instead of off it, to show that we can be successful as actors instead of being restricted to tech work.



Simmian7
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06 Jul 2015, 9:20 pm

i've done a couple hollywood movies...and a music video for a mainstream artist.
i've also done a few local plays. and on a side note, I've done a few singing gigs in some local festivals.
i also have a youtube page of me singing and doing poetry.


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Rockymtnchris
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08 Jul 2015, 1:47 am

Not sure if it counts as acting, but I've appeared in several television commercials over the years, including one for that "new formula Coke" that came out 1985, IIRC. (about a 3 second showing of me in a 30 second spot).
I had my one and only speaking line in a TV ad shot in 1999 plugging a news website.
I think VHS tapes of some of these are still stashed in my garage.


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Neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 125 of 200
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invisibleboy
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08 Jul 2015, 3:09 am

I just got the dvd "Possibilities, Disabilities and the Arts" from the library and one of the adults interviewed talks about theatre and how a lot of people with autism say it has saved their life because gives them a socially appropriate place to practice proper social skills.

In theatre I always liked that I didn't have to come up with my own words, they were already written and I just needed to memorize them. It was social interaction that was a lot harder to screw up. I started doing theatre 15 years ago, when I was 16, and then I finally became comfortable with the patterns I saw in theatre interaction enough to start writing my own stuff. I still rely a lot upon written scripts for verbal communication, but nobody knows I'm writing scripts for myself constantly.

I wish my doctors weren't so narrow minded. In their eyes, I'm socially appropriate and love to be on stage so I couldn't possibly be autistic, and the specialist who diagnosed me was just seeing me to diagnose me, that's all he does, so there was no follow up. For a little while even I discounted my diagnosis, but if I look closely at the way I operate, I can see it. Knowing why I act the way I do around people helps.


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synesthete, diagnosed with ASD April 4, 2012.

everybody's playing the game
but nobody's rules are the same
nobody's on nobody's side