In his upcoming film "Stronger," Jake Gyllenhaal plays Jeff Bauman, a man who lost his legs in the Boston Marathon bombing. But while the film celebrates the incredible story of his character, the film is now being criticized for casting a non-disabled actor to play an amputee.
The Ruderman Family Foundation, a group tha'ts made headlines recently for its criticisms of Hollywood castings, issued a press release calling out the movie for casting Gyllenhaal without considering any actors with disabilities for the role.
"The casting of Jake Gyllenhaal as the lead in the movie Stronger is the perfect example of Hollywood's ongoing systemic discrimination against actors with disabilities," said RFF President Jay Ruderman.
Ruderman slammed "Stronger" director David Gordon Green for reportedly not giving actors who are amputees the chance to audition for the role.
"Gyllenhaal may have been the best actor for the part, but if actors with disabilities are never given a chance to audition they will never have the opportunity to reach the success that someone like Gyllenhaal has achieved,” Ruderman added.
Of course, this may have been largely because there aren't many actors who are also double-amputees, a fact Ruderman inadvertently admits in his statement.
“People with disabilities are twenty percent of our society, yet represent less than two percent of the actors we see on screen," he said. "This inauthenticity in having able-bodied actors play a character with a disability will inevitably be seen by the public buying tickets to Hollywood’s films as unacceptable just as we wouldn’t accept a white actor play a black character.”
The comparison between race and disability seems to be an easy leap for Ruderman, but the reality is very different. While Ruderman and his foundation's work may be extremely admirable, the basis for his claims seems to be unfounded, to say the least.
By their very nature, actors are paid to portray people who they are not. This is especially true when actors portray non-fiction characters, and some of the best performances in history have come from people who in reality are very unlike the characters they play.
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