Hollywood's Exclusion of Autistic Actors Highlights its Biggest Diversity Problem: Disability

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Acting to me is an art form like music, poetry and painting. It's purpose is to make sense of the world we live in by leading us to universal truths that transcend our cultural ties to each other. How it gets there is and should be a mystery to the audience, much like the magician performing magical tricks. You can read books if you like to learn the technical intricacies of art but I don't really think you understand an art form properly unless you perform it.

So having an aspie play an aspie to me is not acting. It's documentary. Having a neurotypical play an aspie, or an aspie play a neurotypical is more acting to me than the other way around. But what you need for acting to work is a natural intelligence on the part of the actor to understand the character that the actor is playing. That comes from the the actor's level of training and experience.

More importantly we need writers who understand their material and the characters they are writing for, who can write about autism in a sympathetic and non-condescending fashion for the audience, who can be entertained while learning about autism.

Fan of Holby cast and crew, and I think, depite the incredible differences, they all cope around each other well, and the good bits are the ability to make people laugh and question the truth when it doesn't always come out the way it should.
Jules should get an acting credit, because for someone on the spectrum, he acts really well.
Not many have the focus, drive and attention to make a winning formula, so, I reckon a T.V award is on the cards.

Apparently when he isn't acting Robert De Niro is quite bad socially. Jodie Foster said when they went to a cafe he would just sit there not saying anything , and she would have to talk to the waiters etc. Interviewers say he isn't very talkative. Look at the youtube video called Young Jodie Foster Couldn't Get Robert De Niro to Talk
Yet Robert is a big advocate for saying vaccinations caused his son to have autism, but maybe it was more hereditary?
Acting is pretending to be another person, so if an actor has autism how would you know if they're not being themselves?

As someone interested getting into acting, I'm hesitant about putting my condition on my acting resume. What if I'm immediately rejected because actors are supposed to be sociable and charming? Maybe that's why other actors with ASD don't put themselves forward.

Being sociable and charming has nothing whatsoever to do with acting. All directors care about is that you are professional and can do the work.

Your implication is nonsense.

Here's a starter for ten:

1) Steven Yeun (Walking Dead)
2) Aziz Ansari (Parks & Recreation)
3) Ki Hong Lee (Maze Runner)
4) Lucy Liu (Ally Mcbeal, amongst many others)
5) Justin Chon (Twilight)
6) Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad)
7) Jamie Chung (Big Hero 6)
Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim)
9) Li Jun Li (Quantico)
10) Michelle Ang (Fear The Walking Dead)


Granted, many of the above are from movies and not TV shows, but what's wrong with showing Asians working at Asian restaurants, given many Asians.... work at Asian restaurants?

Go to Japan and they show 'white man' teaching English in schools.... because many whites teach English in Japanese schools.

It's not misrepresentation/typecasting - it's completely the opposite.


There's nothing wrong with certain ethnicities etc only receiving a small percentage of representation when they only represent a small percentage of the population they are part of/will be shown to.



This may come as a surprise, but if you go to Ghana, most of the TV shows feature black people...




Alex I don't know if you're joking with this thread.

A week ago, I sent my portfolio (an example of my screenwriting, my reasons for joining, a list of my influences and voice acting reel) to three shows. But now, after reading this thread, I'm starting to get concerned that, because I disclosed the fact that I have AS, I may have scared them off on preconception grounds.

There's good arguments for and against disclosing it. But then it goes back to an earlier point of if you don't disclose your ASD, then how will casting directors know when they're looking for these kind of actors? It's hard to ask for ASD diversity when ASD actors won't come out and say they have it.

It sucks do it for "diversity points", but in these times it seems like that's one way to get ahead.

I don't think he's joking, in his insights and over views of what he preumes to be inaccurate means testing of actors backstage and, he possibly runs his own photoshoots and make-up rehearsals in a trailer before action can commence.
More light humour than back handed comments and whiplash might save the day on nonsense and undercredited actors who gave in to means testing yonks ago.
Time for the real story on auditions taking place around the globe when, someone is in the mood for global stardom with globe trotting at the heart of every rehearsal.
I think a country and western style soap would be more entertaining in black and white than the native apocolypse show.

In that case we should all have a good complaint about how exclusionary Bollywood is, given it primarily employs.... Indians...


I'm aware it wasn't a joke. But I felt it nicer to say that than simply show biased nonsense for what it is. Which is what was done with my reply i.e. listing actors that completely contradict the false statement Alex made with regards Asians.

Next thing we'll be hearing about how eskimos are biased for not delegating enough igloo space to Africans.

^^I agree with what you're saying as it is obviously common misjudgement that has hired the cliche and the stop gap here.

It would be a tall order don't you think, to say to anyone who is autistic, come on, let's go all out Bollywood when some sonically receptive ears are tuned in to loudspeaker all day long and know the inside out genres of a foreign nature, only to be expunged by a loud mouth producer that the solar panels inside his studio aren't working, long after the greenhouse effects of the Sahara or Bahrain desert has long scorched its last enterprise number for the night.

What is acting, is the ability to play yourself in a defining role, complete of both character and morals which lay true to yourself. If the caption doesn't fit you just keep on going until it does..or do you?
I don't think that bossing the actors around and around is going to show the world they don't have an underlying disability, regardless of performance and if the world were all made up of foreign lumberjack trumpites, our opponents in character would be pre-selected at random to all follow suit. WHO in their right mind wants a Donald for a holy man in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, when no body can know if the special effects will last out that long anyway?

Empathy I don't know if you're addressing myself in your post?

If so, could you speak directly please - I have no clue what you're talking about.

Thanks

^^ If you had read my post, I wasn't referring to you, I was making some references and thought that a sonic loudspeaker had the bahrain effect here. Alex was the one who voiced his opinion wrongly and harshly, so I am unsure where the topic truly lies with him.
In any case, I was flipping back through the threads and I couldn't seem to find a post on how British actors were being represented around the globe. Maybe hindsight has a better theory, maybe the above reasons are conflicting with my own. Anway, I'm not sure we were discussing Bollywood as a foreign rule to cater for only pre raphelites and isralites.
What is missing is the supreme culture of each nation and if Hollywood has somehow sanctioned its own rules on renegotiating stable actors from lands of both our fathers and karma phobia than reason seems to dictate and overrule theory on one giant starting point.
If you can't understand my points, go back to some of the ones you were making as I wish some of these posters would do, they often don't have a clue about their own background in the making as well as what society wants from everybody, whether or not they're disabled or have a clue.
Get back to basics people. Let harmony rule.

Last edited by Empathy on 10 Feb 2017, 9:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I read your post but didn't know if the two '^^' symbols at the beginning meant you were addressing the post above yours i.e. my own.

I shall leave the thread as it was

I don' t really like editing twice, so I'll bring forththe quote picked up from someone else.
[quote''preludeman'']I hope Alex Plank continues to advocate for us in Hollywood and the media in general[quote/].
If advocates are willing to surpass free thinking revolutionaries just for sign that means Hollywood has made it into Bollywood realms, than maybe they need to cut off their script to spite their text before the benzini brothers also decide they want to make a comeback in the world of fast food entertainment.

If there were more ethnic cultures acting out daring roles, like Jacob in Twilight Breaking Dawn for instance, then foreign actors wouldn't get penalised and radicalised for being themselves in a demanding structure, output is one thing but when input doesn't always cotton onto the concepts of training hard to gain better success then sequels don't always happen. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a good one, but gets curtailed by old folk sob stories when the real action should be around the culture and surrounds.

By the way,I liked Slumdog Millionaire and Life Of Pi actors, I just wish some more talents i.e disabled ones, would also highlight all our most sacred vows and laws in the world we live and breathe; acting scarcely making it as a collective whole. Documentaries are now the future stage of any pronounced actor turned sceptic, and one that i can readily divulge in.

This is just ridiculous. If you are a good actor and more importantly you have the connections they will have you. That is where the trouble starts: we are generally horrible at acting like a normal person and our social circle is usually very limited. It has nothing to do with diversity or discrimination, it's simply a fact of being autistic. A lot of the concerns about diversity have a very flawed idea of cause and effect.

That doesn't mean that someone with autism cannot become a good actor, it's just very unlikely. I will always stand with merit being the most important thing. If you want to talk about an aspect of Hollywood that is toxic it's their extreme nepotism. It's a giant clique that makes people famous if they like that person. If you look at Hollywood blockbusters you will quickly see that excellence in acting is not a common divider.