Disabled roles for disabled actors?
Updated on 16 November 2009
Is using actors without disabilities to play disabled roles the modern day equivalent of blacking-up?
Using actors who are not mentally impaired to play disabled parts is "the modern equivalent of blacking-up". That is the provocative claim of a new campaign started by the mother of a young actress with Asperger's syndrome.
Nicola Clark's daughter, Lizzy was the first Asperger's actress to play a fictional character with the condition in a 2008 BBC TV film.
Ms Clark says employing actors who are not mentally disabled to play characters with such impairments must stop.
Oscar-winning films such as Forrest Gump, which starred Tom Hanks playing a man with learning difficulties, and Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman as someone with autism, should no longer be socially acceptable, she argues.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked Ms Clark to explain what she meant by the modern equivalent of blacking-up.
