It is without a doubt that the way disability is portrayed in the media today is drastically different from how the subject was approached in the past. Evidence of this shift can be found in a conversation I had with my mother following my viewing of Wicked (2024).
My mom: “Do you think the girl who played Nessa actually uses a wheelchair?”
Me: “It’s 2024, so yes.”
I did not even need to look up the actress to produce my answer. I knew by today’s standards, an able-bodied actress playing a wheelchair-bound character would not be permissible. Sure enough, a TikTok from Marissa Bode, who plays Elphaba’s sister, was featured on my For You page hours later, confirming my assumption to be accurate. In the TikTok, Bode spoke out against the hate she was receiving from the film as viewers took out their frustrations with elements of Nessa’s personality by degrading the character based on her disability, making cruel, ablest jokes that Bode found harmful since Bode, like her character, is also unable to walk and has faced genuine hardships due to her disability.
I also know that this level of representation has only recently become the norm. When I think about wheelchair-bound characters, the first that comes to mind is Artie from the 2010s show Glee, played by able-bodied Kevin McHale. In fact, statistics show that 95% of disabled characters in television are not portrayed by disabled actors. What is problematic about this casting is that a person in a wheelchair cannot really play an able-bodied person in the same way, meaning that roles for disabled actors are limited when not many characters are written for them. Additionally, controversy lies around the concept of an able-bodied individual “acting out” a disability on screen. This is part of a larger conversation in Hollywood about who can play what role. Where is it appropriate for a character’s racial identity to be disregarded? Obviously, “acting” as a different racial identity is incorrect. But when can a character’s race be altered? Should an actor’s sexuality impact what roles they play, or inversely, should a character’s sexuality determine what actor is most fit to portray them? These questions still do not have straightforward answers, as views are prone to differ between actors, viewers, and those on the creative team.
One piece of information I found interesting was that Bode was the first disabled actress ever to take on the role of Nessa, as she has never been portrayed by a wheelchair-bound actress in Broadway Wicked’s 21-year run. One reason this may be because (spoilers!) from what I have heard about the content of Part 2, Nessa gains the ability to walk in the second act, a plot point that had to be revised for the film adaptation. This plot point, however, would make it difficult for an actually disabled actress to play the role, which I am sure is frustrating for the disabled acting community, who is already severely excluded from stage and screen writing.
