Disability Organization Upset Non-Blind Actor Plays Blind Character in ‘Blind’

ashley.rae | July 11, 2017
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A disability rights organization is upset that a non-blind actor was cast to play a role of a blind person in the movie “Blind.”

The LA Times reports the Ruderman Family Foundation, a leading disability rights organization, accused the movie of “crip-face” by casting “able-bodied” Alec Baldwin in the role of the blind lead character.

Jay Ruderman, the president of the Ruderman Family Foundation, told the LA Times, “Alec Baldwin in ‘Blind’ is just the latest example of treating disability as a costume.”

Ruderman continued, comparing the casting of Baldwin as a blind person to blackface.

He said, “We no longer find it acceptable for white actors to portray black characters. Disability as a costume needs to also become universally unacceptable.”

In the film “Blind,” which is set to debut on July 14, Baldwin depicts a novelist who became blind after a car accident.

According to a 2016 study by the Ruderman Family Foundation on the representation of disabilities in television,  “only 5% of those characters with disabilities are played by actual actors with disabilities.”

The conclusion of the study asserts having disabled people play disabled roles in a matter of social justice.

“This is nothing short of a social justice issue where a marginalized group of people is not given the right to self-representation,” it reads. “We must change this inequality through more inclusive casting, through the use of Computer Graphics (CG) to create ability, through the media holding the industry responsible, through the avoidance of stereotypical stories, and ultimately through the telling of stories that depict people with disabilities without focusing on the disability.”

The film “The Great Wall,” starring Matt Damon, recently came under fire for having a white lead. The film “Murder on the Orient Express” also received scrutiny for not including Asian casting, despite the fact race has nothing to do with the original book.

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