A touching, humourous, and thought-provoking TED talk from Arab-American writer-actor-comedian with CP, Maysoon Zayid. It raises some interesting issues about the perception of disability and the importance of inclusion and diversity, which can be perhaps not-so-simple and a bit too black-and-white in discussion sometimes. I feel they are worthy of respectful consideration and discussion to help everyone move forward in this industry. Zayid, half tongue-in-cheek suggests, "If a wheelchair user can't play Beyoncé, then Beyoncé can't play a wheelchair user." What do you think? Watch the video and share your thoughts if you're interested. https://www.ted.com/talks/maysoon_zayid_i_got_99_problems_palsy_is_just_one
Acting : "If a wheelchair user can't play Beyoncé, then Beyoncé can't play a wheelchair user." by Paul Barry
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Maysoon has such a great spirit to find humor and positivity in disability. Great TED talk, thank you for sharing.
I suspect that may have just been an excuse. But if not, you're absolutely right. Otherwise, what they're saying is, 'you're just not on par as an actor', which is also fine. But who's going to tell ANY actor they didn't land the role because of their acting? It's not exactly a welcome response to most actors.
Yep, totally agree.
Breaking bad did it very well, so hopefully that's a good start.
Audiences responded very well to Breaking Bad, so here's hoping. Anything new is difficult for audiences to immediately warm to, but things seem to be heading in the right direction. This article touches on the topic, with some actors with the same disability as their characters and others playing them (allegedly) well: http://hubpages.com/entertainment/TV-disability The comments section at the bottom though has a lot more interesting exploration of it, with many other examples. Cheers, =pb=