The REAL Reason Disabled Actors Should Play Disabled Characters on TV & in Movies… 

Dont forgot that invisible disability is a thing. There's more out there than you would know or expect. It's easy to fall into ableist views when you forget that there's people out there who are disabled but don't appear so to the naked eye. And yes; disabled people can be ableist against others with disabilities. It's the reason the term "sick-olympics" exists in the first place.

I agree with you 100% and then some Dear Molly. I hope after I’m not here that there will come a time ppl like me and you will not suffer and be neglected abused, ignored and all the other things that you. Mentioned perfectly.💜peace

It sickens me that they literally took your story, didn’t hire you, and didn’t compensate you for the use of it.

Cant you sue them though for taking your life stories and experiences and making a show based off of it? I mean for the to give a role not to you is ridiculous.

Not right at all. They needed you

Sarah Brown I have not seen this movie Thank you for the wonderful idea 💡 Definitely watching it tonight

Yes, John Krasinski insisted a deaf person play the role and I think cast and crew learned ASL as well.

@@SabrinaPlaza1031 it is phenominal the husband and whife are an actual couple in real life and the little girl helped teach the cast sign language. and if they made a mistake it was the little girl who had to call the cut because of the signing mistake. at least thats what ive heard. but i completely relate to what molly said.... when i was 18 i auditioned reluctantly for the traveling auditions for a production of hunchback of notredame for the part of quazi modo. as the director was hoping he could get this to a bigger stage, like broadway. and i lost the part not because i couldnt sing, not because i didnt fit the part but because since i am a hunchback because i have an extreme form of scoliosis so i have a huge hunch on my left side just like in the disney cartoon.... i lost the part because i couldnt climb the ropes so an abled body guy got the part and worse yet, i didnt even get to be the understudy, a guy who (in my oppinion) had a bit too tough a singing voice (he is a great singer i want to clarify that!) but he has a bit too much of a rock sound and not really that soft texture voice plus he smoked which isnt exactly what you want in someone who is going to be singing songs. i have been 4foot11 since i was 14 and i cant grow any taller and back then i had played oliver and the artful dodge from oliver twist. i got to play scar in a charity theater show hell i even played edna turnblad in a small theater group (just a heads up it was mainly because no guy was willing to do it coz they were scared of the lash back but i had just come out as gay at the time and i love dress design so i helped the lady doing costumes make something for me so it looked like a big suit coz i was very skinny then). but thats all they were... small groups having fun . we werent getting paid. the hunchback of notradame was practically my life story to the point where the songs quasi modo cries at when he sing... i would cry because i have lived his life right down to the abusive religious parent. that show was my perfect match and i had an 8 octivate range going up to whistle tone so i could sing every song in the show if i wanted to. and its the only thing i was ever confident in. but i never got it they went on to do huge shows and i was left at the way side thinking why was i so undeserving of the role coz i know i could play that role. me and quasi modo are one and the same and i can sing, so why was the other guy better than me....... several years later i had my singing exame in academy and my teacher wouldnt let me rest my voice (i was wanting to rest my voice coz my voice broke the wonders of puberty) i told her forcing my voice coz damage my vocal cords and my body takes longer to heal coz of other disabilities i have, but she didnt listen and my vocal cords were perminantly scarred and i can barely sing anymore. 2 years after i finished academy the same director asked me to take the lead for the uk tour and (in the most heartbreaking moment of my life) i had to say no... it was tooo late... my body was weak, my voice fragile, and my will broken, and with uk laws not letting me work. im now trapped in my home. if i work i have to get 4 full time jobs just to offord bills and rent or i can live on benifits and barely have enough to survive and pray to god they dont cut the benifits more and i end up homeless. and i had to choose the benifits path. and now my life is just this black tar burning and poisoning everything, with no hope in sight. if im honest i wish a lot of the time i just wasnt born because then i wouldnt coz such pain for others.

Oh yes its AMAZING!!!!! If anyone didn't see it do yourself a favor and watch it. You won't be disappointed

Emily Blunt’s husband Josh Krasinski directed that film and his wife acted in that movie as well. I don’t usually like horror films, but that one was well done.

been helping in Literature as well- Colin Creevy (TSG) and Clara (Heidi)

Right! Miraculous recovery is always a part of the plot. And neither of those are true examples, because Colin was, if anything, a victim of Manchurian syndrome by proxy, and it was never entirely stated what happened to Clara, but I think maybe she’d had an illness and never fully recovered? If physical therapy had been a thing she probably would’ve been a well years before meeting Heidi. But everyone just accepted that she was an invalid and that was that. It is historically accurate at least that fresh air and plentiful nutritious food can work wonders for people who’ve been living without it.

@@PrincessofEllabur There's a new production of The Secret Garden that's threatening to come to Broadway and they've put a non-Disabled actor in the role of Archibald Craven AGAIN and I'm so angry :(

Watching her at a convention was amazing.

Shoshannah Stern is awesome. And I love that Eileen (the character) was no less badarse than any other hearing Hunter, but it was never something that was unrealistic. It was exactly what I would want as disabled representation.

Would be mockery if a hearing actor would act deaf or even worse would put on an exaggerated "deaf voice". I also like how Eileen was written, her deafness was part of her but not the main thing about her especially when she came back. She was just another character that happened to have lost her hearing due to a monster attack as a child. Just like other hunters have other issues due to monsters.

I believe she also plays the deaf character (I forget the characters name) in family guy, so she does voice acting too, despite being deaf.

Yess!! Supernatural is my all time favorite show!!

It is great she is spreading awareness because im also autistic and they never portray us correct in anything

Exactly! Sia's short film "Music" was horrific, don't get me started

I am autistic with ADHD and albinism (albino-ism) and I am at the point that I am like just don't try to represent me because you are doing more harm than good. There is YET another movie coming out called "In The Fire" with an autistic kid who is displayed as rather demon-like till an American Psychiatrist comes down to Columbia and diagnoses him with Autism and then cures him. The Psychiatrist is played by Amber Heard which is so problematic anyways, but I digress. Autism isn't something that can be cured, and I was never a demon and I still am not a demon. All of the TV shows that depict autism makes us out to be "idiot savants" and it pisses me off. They portray us as not being able to be successful in life, having learning disabilities, and so on and so forth. I have an IQ equal to Einstien and I really haven't met another autistic who isn't extremely smart but wasn't given the right tools to succeed. The school systems treat us like we are dumb because they teach from the bottom up instead of the top down. We are the researchers, the creators, the thinkers, and the neurotypicals are the doers. STOP making us out to be the broken and the stupid and only have one interest. I am monotropic so I focus on one thing at a time, but I have multiple interests I just don't poly focus or polytropic thinking. I have the same problems with the albinism community as we are depicted as evil magickal beasts. This is dangerous as we are still being murdered in some countries around the world for supposedly being magical!

Everything's gonna be okay was the first series I've ever seen where the autististic person was well represented. Josh Thomas found out he was on the spectrum while making it, and that is amazing to me :) His earlier work "please like me" is amazing too because he playes himself so it is an autistic character not even ment to be written that way, which makes him very accurate.

You might wanna check out "Everything's gonna be okay". I got it recommended to me by my fellow people with autism when I was at my wit's end about the horrible representation of autism in media. They have actual good autism representation played by characters who actually do have autism (and some other representation like both white and bipoc LGBT representation, service dog representation, and other disability representation). It was so great to see.

Esperanza was such a great character, loved her! Hard to believe this was her first (and only so far) role. Such a shame this cute series has been cancelled. Maybe the kids got too grown up too quickly?

Also a character in Eternals was deaf and played by a deaf person.

@The Name Thing Is Not Happening RU-vid I also liked that because my mom is hard of hearing and while there are definitely a lot of times where people treat her badly because of it she still has the choice to tell people about her issue or not. Less so now because her hearing has definitely gotten worse but when she was younger unless you knew what to look for you wouldn't have know because she hid it so well. She was never discriminated against at work because of this for example, she had that choice many people who are deaf aren't given.

Also to clarify my mom definitely would need hearing aids and has needed them for decades but never got them. Because that would have visibly made her different so she instead decided she would rather just struggle through life instead of getting the aid she needs. That in itself makes me incredibly sad and mad for her. I grew up helping her all the time and covering for her when needed but it really shouldn't have to be that way. She acquired that hearing loss due to an unsafe work environment so all of my siblings and I are hearing and not in any more or less danger of getting hearing loss than anyone else.

I also ADORE this show. but the main actress who played Daphne isn't deaf, she's HoH which normally, yeah, fine. but she put on a deaf accent for the show and yeah, that's not good is it? you can watch the interviews with her where she speaks without it but she puts it in for the show and idk, just makes me feel icky. On the other had tho, I LOVE Sean Berdy and Marlee Marlin, they are amazing actors and seeing Marlee again in CODA 😘👌

@@sianabrooker2434 I totally agree, it's a bit icky. I'm HoH and I would feel SO weird EVER pretending to have a deaf accent that I don't have, even for a show. Also, I've noticed/seen other people point out that her sign is actually quite bad in the first few seasons and the deafness she portrays is sometimes unrealistic (like how she can often magically lip-read in complex conversations and stuff). Plus, I've seen in interviews that she has Meniere's disease, and that she only has minor hearing loss that comes and goes. I really love the other characters/actors, though!

@@MaeTheGhost HoH gang ftw 😅, would feel so weird right?! Im British so never learned any ASL so I can't speak for it myself but from what I've heard, she learned a little in high school but knew little when she was hired, was taught by ASL coaches who (I can't confirm this) apparently were Hearing also. So yeah, the ASL is bad in the first few seasons at the very least. Something else that gets me is the portrayal of lip-reading. Daphne has like superhuman lip reading skills and can follow a lot of convos her family are making and I'm sure you can agree with me when I say that following complex lip reading situations is HAAAARD. like I understand 30-40% hard. I could go on lol, as I said I live the show but for HoH/Deaf representation? it's not amazing, it touches on some good subjects but that's about it

@@MaeTheGhost I do indeed adore the couple of actual Deaf characters they have. Weirdly only one adult despite the fact we meet them at a school for deaf quite often...where are the deaf teachers?! Sean is an amazing actor and is also Deaf like born Deaf, uses an interpreter for interviews Deaf. The perfect person to hire for the job really. Grew up speaking ASL, emmerced in Deaf culture, amazing actor and fits the criteria for the role. How hard can it honestly be to find more people like him and Marlee (I also forgot about the Emmet's dad in this, he is indeed another Deaf adult). CODA did it (not that that's a perfect film either)... Hollywood will get there one day I hope

Marlee Matlin is one of the deaf moms in the show and she's actually deaf in real life and she's played a hearing person in a movie before which I think is amazing!

Yes PSAs for sighted-guiding! I learned this through Molly’s channel and it seems so beneficial for any type of assisted guidance from a sighted person. Not just to a blind person but any person with disability that may want help.

her name is Ellie Wallwork.

Hi. You’re talking about my friend, the lovely Ellie Walwork

Doctor Who also had two episodes (two-part storyline) with a deaf character played by a deaf actress. :)

omg, i was just about to mention that episode. doctor who tends to be good at authentic representation. of course that's not always the case, for example, currently there's 2 queer characters played by two (assumed) straight woman, however even then, the writer of the romance was a queer woman so one could argue that despite the actors not being queer, it is still authentic representation.

I recently watched this episode. Her dad played her good tho

I’ve never understood the “Well I did lots of research” argument. Like… is that not what you would do for a role anyway?? Lol you don’t get bonus points for doing research; that’s literally what acting is! 🙄

Johnny Kincaid is so cute and a great actor too

Are you blind

It is so encouraging to me to see that there are future producers like you out there! As a Disabled actor, thank you!!

I think you’ve really got it with you last point. (And the rest before, but the last point is the one I came to the comments thinking about specifically). If you hire an actually disabled actor, you have to do the work and pay any associated costs to actually accommodate them. Whereas if you hire an able actor, nothing on set has to change and no extra effort has to be made, no extra costs time or otherwise have to be paid. And I think not wanting to do that work is for sure part of it. ETA: “It” being why disabled actors are passed over for abled actors when casting characters that have a given disability.

Your last point of costing more time and/or money is what I believe is the main factor. Let's use a blind person for example, as this is on Molly's video. They most likely assume that they will need to spend extra time positioning the actor/actress in the proper spot and then try to have their face looking in the correct direction. Now I'm not saying this will be the case for all blind actors/actresses, but this is most likely their fear. In TV and film, time is money.

@@eleanoreliz and that’s also why eg on-screen wheelchairs often aren’t manoeuvrable… and they somehow appear in a room with no access… because the actors just step in and out of them between takes rather than accurately embodying the experience of actually using a wheelchair. And I’m sure the same applies to every other disability. One thing I notice is when sighted people play blind characters they never ever look at the person they’re speaking to, which some blind people don’t particularly try to do, but it’s not as universal as media portrays it. I’m sure there’s much more besides.

Yes! And he is an actually-Disabled actor. :) It blows my mind how consistently Disabled actors hit it out of the park every single time and yet people still don't want to cast us. :(

Marlee Martin had to discourage the creators of CODA about hiring able-bodied people to play her deaf husband and deaf son.

I don't think wheel chair users like the phrase "wheel chair bound"?

@@harveyabel1354 you're probably right. I just couldn't think of better phrasing in the moment

@@acmiller22 full-time wheelchair user is a good alternative I think

In that case they should still at least have the “after” actor be a real Disabled person.

I hope this comment does not get deleted or blocked because I'm not at all saying anything negative, and I respect Molly's wish that nothing be negative said. I'm super late as I just watch this video. But the show you named in this comment is actually based off of Molly's story. This is public knowledge. Just in case you didn't know. I have not watched it (because I personally can't stand watching nondisabled actors and actresses playing disabled characters) but I know plenty of people who enjoyed the series. It just makes me incredibly sad though that so many disabled people who are super talented don't even get a chance. We definitely need better representation. Years ago, I was very good friends with a blind voiceover actress. Not only was she an incredible human being, she was super talented and her biggest dream was to be on stage. She ultimately decided that she would have a better chance acting was just her voice. I saw her go to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of auditions, only to be turned down, or to have certain accommodations denied because she was blind. I also saw how fellow actors and actresses excluded her, yet she endured it with grace and kindness, publicly smiled and put on a good face, and then came home and broke down in tears.

YES!! This is so true!

You should start it!! 💗

@@stelasulzdorf I wish I could. I have no idea what I'm doing/don't have the funds. 😅 Maybe one day though

That sounds very sad and unfair. If you got other roles before, don't the people in the theatre even know already that you can do more?

I was shook! They were basically saying “we don’t think you are good enough to play yourself”. Like wow

And then they asked her to consult them on how a sighted person can play HER! the audacity!

This is so true!! I'm so bummed they haven't done this with 'Moulin Rouge'. Like, there's literally a chronically ill character right there who would be such good representation and yet they keep casting her with non-Disabled actors. Not to mention never casting any visibly-Disabled actors as Toulouse-Lautrec, let alone actors with dwarfism. >:(

Yes so happy it won the Oscar this year for best picture!

I am still very upset about the whole thing. The absolute dismissal and gaslighting Sia did to the autism community is appaling. I can't even listen to her songs without being mad. To think that they "tried" to hire an autistic actress but provided an unsafe environment for them and just went "oh welp let's not make any acommodations and instead just replace her with Sia's favourite puppet" And they consulted Autism speak$ aka the "let's encourage bleach enema's, shock therapy, abusive Aba and put all our founding into eradicating autism foundation" arrrghhh

I was about to ask if this was the show.

@UCr5w-SNWAM4w2MCgAfpgTkQ exaxtly she has a guide dog but doesnt seem to connected to it. Molly was depressed but i dont think she was being drunk all the time and stuff. So maybe we need to see more to see the connections?

@@lijntje266 the IMBD trivia page says the main woman in that show is based off of Molly.

Lol they based it off Molly but made her a depressed drunk? That's some creative license

@@fraggelrock9974 I was wondering that too. I'm like uh Molly wasn't acting like an alcoholic but alright.

I dont think its wrong of you to include them, but if you want perspective look into consulting with a person who has the disability. They want to be represented, just in an accurate way that also doesnt look down on them.

TV/Movie as well as books tend to ignore mobility disabilites as well. I have mobility disabilities as well as I am hard of hearing. I would love to see disabled charatcter's represented in books. I agree with the other commenter consult with people who have the disability that you want to represent.

Write your stories, but get a sensitivity reader - and be prepared to change a pivotal action if it gets flagged by the sensitivity readers. If you commit to putting the work into making it accurately reflect the disability, then go right ahead.

Preferably more than one disabled character, unless it’s a very small cast. Don’t be afraid to write characters who just happen to be disabled, whether that’s mobility, vision or hearing impairment, or neurodivergence.