‘Crip Up’ as bad as blackface

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It’s no secret that Hollywood and the film industry have a history and culture of whitewashing, romanticising and glamorising historical events. The lack of diversity in films is still fairly obvious for anyone who is willing to see beyond the glitz and glamour associated with big Hollywood names.

The Theory of Everything is a film based on the life of Stephen Hawking, who we all know suffers from a motor neuron disease. The actor who portrays him in this film is Eddie Redmayne, who is able-bodied. This is only one example of actors who ‘crip up’ to play a role that the person with a disability is perfectly able of portraying and are then admired for their ability to play disabled. You can even go so far as to argue that its another form of blackface, minus the humiliation and obvious ridiculing. Think Forrest Gump as another example.

This reminded me of Maysoon Zayid, a comedian and actress with cerebral palsy. She tells a story about how she was turned down for a role about a woman with CP (which would have been perfect for her) because the director said she wouldn’t be able to do the stunts. Maysoon is a woman with CP – if she can’t do the stunts, neither can the character. Because of course, the issue never really is about what is realistic.

This problem is even worse for whitewashing historical events. In the film Exodus, Christian Bale portrays Moses. Whether you believe in this Biblical event or not, the fact remains that IF this events occurred, it was geographically impossible for Moses to be a white dude. This is just as bad as selling to people a blond haired, blue-eyed Jesus, so how far have we really come?

With the Academy Awards just around the corner and every single actor and actress nominee being white, it’s clear that the lack of diversity has got worse. I know people are going to cry ‘PC gone mad’ but the sad reality is that one of the most influential industries in the world is basically refusing to acknowledge that people and women of colour as well as differently abled can be just as talented as a white man.

5 COMMENTS

  1. “The actor who portrays him in this film is Eddie Redmayne, who is able-bodied. This is only one example of actors who ‘crip up’ to play a role that the person with a disability is perfectly able of portraying and are then admired for their ability to play disabled.”

    Having an actual disabled person play Hawking in The Theory of Everything wouldn’t be remotely possible, which you would know if you had seen the film. He starts out being very able – the film depicts the onset and progression of Motor Neuron Disease, something Hawking only got when he was 21. That would surely only be possible to be portrayed by an able-bodied actor, no?

  2. Eddie Redmayne has the great advantage of looking like Hawking, whose face is very familiar. Good as Colin Firth was as George VI in “The King’s Speech”, Benedict Cumberbatch would have been better.

    Not all blackface is as contemptible as “The Black & White Minstrels” or the n—– minstrels on which they are based. In 1963 I played the role of a Black American soldier (Smithson in Marghanita Laski’s “The Offshore Island”) in all seriousness. The greasepaint was officially called “Nigger Black”. If I remember rightly (Professor-to-be) Jim Flynn was my dialogue coach. I’m sure if a Black American had been available he would have been preferred, but in the event, my brother’s companion (was it Maire Locke?) said “They must have got a real black man”, which I consider a great compliment. The big disadvantage was that I was an hour late for all the after-show parties.

    The whiteness, maleness and straytness of the Oscar winners are another, very American, issue.

  3. CP comes in different degrees of severity, and Maysoon Zayid may indeed not have been up to the stunts required in the play. Not everybody can play every part. Treating disabled people as interchangeable is also stereotyping.

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