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Post by britishtetra on Oct 30, 2010 6:57:54 GMT -5
The guy in most of those films is a quad who lives in huntington beach, i used to write to his sister for years......
Pete
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Post by roger888 on Oct 30, 2010 11:48:31 GMT -5
Roger, I totally agree with you! My truism for today is: disabled actors playin' disabled roles make very good disable charactes. See Michael Patrick Thornton as Dr. Gabriel Fife in Private Practice or Robert David Hall as the coroner, Dr. Al Robbins, in CSI. There have been a couple of good disabled actors who have had roles in Eastenders & Coronation Street on tv(two of our top shows here),so given that scriptwriters want to include a "disabled theme" then they will give it someone who is really disabled.Cinema has some catching up to do. Thank you for posting this! Wow, if I were in the UK I would totally go, some of the films and performances look really cool. The UK once again demonstrates how far ahead of the US it is in terms of disability and the arts. This site also introduced me to the awesome Mat Fraser: www.matfraser.co.uk/Too bad I'll miss the screening of his kung-fu action film Unarmed But Dangerous, although it looks like you can watch it online here: www.filmlounge.com/films/martial-arts/unarmed-but-dangerousKeep you eyes open after the festival has finished,if you are lucky some of the performances might end up on youtube ,providing they are recorded.Maybe they will be on the official site?I hadn't heard of this festival until a couple of weeks ago,so I don't know how well organised the post-festival promotion is. Liverpool isn't my favorite city & I won't have anyone to go with me while it's on ,so I think I will have to wait until next year to see how good it is.
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Post by Neffie on Oct 31, 2010 11:50:22 GMT -5
Richard Curtis is also a semi-advocate of disabilities ie the deaf man in Four Weddings and the wheeler in Notting Hill. He never cast a disabled actress which baffled me.
Are there insurance issues or anything like that about casting "real" disabled characters??? One of the films that most springs to mind is Inside I'm Dancing. I mean James McAvoy was great in that film and the CP role would have been very hard to cast but surely they could have found a Quad to fill his shoes?
I mean with Avatar you get it as Sam Worthington had to "play" the Avatar as well as Jake Sully so they needed someone who could wear the suit and run about but for most roles you could get by. In my opinion anyway
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Post by Emma on Oct 31, 2010 17:22:43 GMT -5
The blue people in Avatar are all computer generated Neffie so they didn't actually need a AB actor.
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Post by Cake on Oct 31, 2010 17:27:12 GMT -5
The blue people in Avatar are all computer generated Neffie so they didn't actually need a AB actor. Nope, they weren't. The actors did all the scenes, connected to the computer through special equipment and their movements (face and body) were translated to the blue model on the computer. It's pretty impressive: About most movies not casting disabled actors: I totally agree that it sucks, but beside the obvious there might be another simple reason for that: There just might not be that many disabled actors to choose from...
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Post by Emma on Oct 31, 2010 17:56:09 GMT -5
Oh WOW interesting! I stand corrected. Sorry Neffie!
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Post by devogirl on Oct 31, 2010 21:39:43 GMT -5
About most movies not casting disabled actors: I totally agree that it sucks, but beside the obvious there might be another simple reason for that: There just might not be that many disabled actors to choose from... I think you are absolutely correct. But the response shouldn't be, oh well, we'll just have to use AB actors. Instead, there should be more programs to train people with disabilities who want to become professional actors. The BBC has just such a program, and that's why there are a lot more disabled actors on British TV than here in the States. Also I don't think the Farrelly Bros are devs. I think it's the same reason as for Jimmy and Timmy on South Park, or Joe on Family Guy. Making jokes about disability is transgressive and provocative. If you're trying to shock people, it's pretty sure-fire.
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Post by Emma on Nov 1, 2010 0:08:24 GMT -5
Also I don't think the Farrelly Bros are devs. I think it's the same reason as for Jimmy and Timmy on South Park, or Joe on Family Guy. Making jokes about disability is transgressive and provocative. If you're trying to shock people, it's pretty sure-fire. Good point devogirl. I haven't watched the Farrelly bros movies closely enough to know if they are making fun of the people with disabilities or not (well other than the obvious Stuck on You). From what I remember from Shallow Hal it was not about making fun of the guy with SB but about the main character and highlighting how shallow he was since he only dated classically attractive women.
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Post by alluringpariah on Nov 1, 2010 2:53:29 GMT -5
Yeah it's that same guy in those Farrelly Bros films, I figured he was a friend of theirs or something.
You know it could be directors/producers believe the widely held perception of the disabled being very sick and mostly housebound and decide it's not worth the risk. Also the flexibility. With an AB actor you could have the character miraculously recover further down the track. Could also be, Hollywood is shallow and the fans don't want actual cripples gimping up the screen.
An able bodied actor who fooled me was that Kevin Rankin. I saw him on an episode of 'My name is Earl' and thought he might be a quad, only to see him pop up on 'Friday night lights', which confirmed it for me. I was surprised to read he had no SCI whatsoever. Actually what they came out with on that Earl episode was surprising too.
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Post by ruthmadison on Jan 11, 2011 14:25:10 GMT -5
Are you sure the man wasn't grooming you? Sounds like a pick up line to me. As for good disabled characters? There aren't many but you can have the categories (all male btw): 1) Hot wheelers - very rare and only seen in Avatar when Sam Worthington's not busy being a smurf. You can also have Jude Law in Gattaca but there's no way I'm allowing Val Kilmer in At First Sight. 2) The evil disabled character - Christopher Walken in Things to do in Denver when You're Dead. Blofeld in Bond.....basically relegated to old, fat gangsters who let their henchmen do all the hard work. 3) The Inspirational Disabled character - generally comes attached to an Oscar unless you're Tom Cruise (who cast him???). Jon Voight gave it a go in Coming Home and so did Marlon Brando in The Men to varying degrees of success. I think the main problem being that inspirational disabled characters are not allowed to be hot (see: Artie in Glee) 4) The 'in denial' disabled character - Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman springs to mind (do blind people always look like they're in a permanent state of shock???). This character will drive a Ferrari and dance with a woman like it's not a problem cos he hasn't got a disability, dagnammit! 5) The 'Seriously he's so Badass I wouldn't have thunk it' disabled character - I'm so tempted to hand this one to Rutger Hauer for Blind Faith but let's face it that was a sh*t film so the prize goes to: Darth Vader who was the Daddy of all "f*ck disability" characters ever seen on screen. I don't think any other triple amputees who are vent-dependent have tried to take over the Universe before or since him so really....pretty cool I've been writing a blog where I complain about the portrayal of disabled people in tv and movies (http://disabilityandmedia.blogspot.com) I had a post complaining about the lack of actors who are actually disabled, but I guess I will have to update with a new post, since people here have educated me that there are actual disabled actors out there! Love your description of Darth Vader, so true.
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Post by thegoodlife on Jan 14, 2011 20:09:40 GMT -5
I like the cool, cocky, witty and intelligent disabled characters. Think of a combination of house and mccully culkin's character in saved.
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