Steve Before You
My review of the movie Me Before You
Being a disabled actor, one of the biggest things I fight and advocate for is accurate representation on screen. Too often, non-disabled writers will write stories about what’s it like being disabled, despite their biggest disability was having a sprained ankle for two weeks. Non-disabled actors will play disabled characters, which is the farthest you can get from being authentic. Even though it’s messed up and unfair to actual disabled performers, actors have won major awards for portraying disability. Danial Day-Lewis, Tom Hanks, and Eddie Redmayne have all won an Oscar for faking being crippled.
Fuck that and fuck them. This practice takes jobs away from hardworking disabled performers and prevents us from even getting our wheel foot in the door. They definitely wouldn’t play a black person on screen, so why is disabled okay? Every award received for this is completely illegitimate. Except Sean Penn. He’s fine.