"What About Forrest Gump" and Other Bad Opinions on Disability in Arts & Culture
Michelle Jace is an autistic artist and educator in Southern California. She volunteers as the Director of Inclusive Programming at the non-profit theatre company Olive Branch Theatricals, creating and continuing to develop more inclusive opportunities in the performing arts. Michelle holds a credential in Early Childhood Special Education and is currently pursuing a Master of Liberal Arts with a concentration in Dramatic Arts through the extension studies program at Harvard University.
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To the dismay of the disabled community, the recent announcement of the 2021 Golden Globe nominations included Sia’s film, Music. Debates have sparked between industry professionals and fans alike about the singer’s portrayal of a culture and disability that she does not live with or belong to. As an autistic artist and educator, I have become fascinated with the responses and conversations people have about representation in entertainment.
In November 2020, I wrote a piece detailing data about autism and chronicled Sia’s social media responses to autistic people asking questions about her movie. Hollywood had not prioritized accurate and respectful representation until arguably the last decade, but these discussions are mainly centered on race and gender issues. The tides of public opinion noticeably changed around recent films with blatant whitewashing like Aloha (2015), Ghost in the Shell (2017), and The Great Wall (2016). The Danish Girl (2015) sparked conversations on gender identity and misappropriation. Race and gender portrayal and visibility in arts and media undeniably have a long way to go, but what cannot be forgotten is that equity and equality for marginalized populations are intersectional. Autistic people don’t all look like Sheldon, Sam, and Shaun.
From the very beginning of American cinema, there are examples of stereotypes and narratives portrayed on-screen causing major public influence toward prejudice and violence. The most infamous of films to accomplish this, The Birth of a Nation (1915) was responsible for the resurrection of the Ku Klux Klan decades after their initial extinction.
One of the most helpful ways to deconstruct how ableism is woven into arts and culture is to analyze common responses and excuses for productions avoiding appropriate casting. These rebuttals come up so often that an autistic actor friend and I even have regular jokes about it. To add, this isn’t a burn or a way to make people “feel bad”. If what I’m sharing is new information with you, that's okay! It's all about how you proceed now that you are aware. Alright, deep breath! Here we go.
“What about Forrest Gump? Are you going to go yell at Tom Hanks?”
Okay, this one is my favorite. People think they’ve thrown a real wrench into the machine when mentioning this feature, but all it really does is display ignorance.
I really don’t mind Forrest Gump (1994). There are some valid criticisms of the film, but overall I don’t see it as patronizing or harmful, especially since it was released almost 30 years ago. I adore the soundtrack and Tom Hanks is a national treasure.
Here is the truth bomb: Forrest Gump isn’t a “disability movie”, you just made it into one. It is a film about all of the successes and heartbreaks in an American man’s life. Some Americans use mobility equipment and have physical therapy. Americans can have a speech delay.
The film is not about his perceived deficits, they’re simply part of his humanity. The film never establishes a disability, but only states that the character’s IQ is below average.
If you took the leg braces and atypical social and speech characteristics of Gump and lumped them all together as if they’re all symptoms of one “big” disability (and I guess think that’s also what autism is?), that is your deficit in interpreting the film. Mobility equipment and speech patterns are not a measure of understanding or intelligence. There are many autistic people who do not speak verbally, but instead, type or use a custom communication device. Just because the words don’t come out of their mouth doesn’t make them any less important.
Tom Hanks playing a character with a low test score and innocent mannerisms is not the same as a nondisabled actor playing a character that is distinguished by a disability in a storyline all about that disability.
In the last decade, American audiences began to see a distinct divide between their entertainment content. As the public demand for POC, gender, and disability visibility grew some television shows adapted their stories while others dug their heels in deeper to the old ways.
A few shows, however, made conscious efforts to listen to marginalized voices and take steps to make corrections moving forward even if it wasn’t always executed perfectly. Transparent (2014) is an example of a show starting out with a cishet man playing a transgender character. As the show went on, more trans and queer actors were brought in and were given opportunities for authentic representation of their own stories.
Atypical (2017) is a series about an autistic teen and his family, but the main character was not played by an autistic actor. In later episodes, actually, autistic actors were brought in and given more screen time. For extra credit, I’ll also give a shout out to Rain Man (1988) which was incredibly problematic when it came out over 30 years ago and still is today. This film is its own conversation for another day.
“Well isn’t it all just acting? I wouldn’t care if a disabled actor played a regular person.”
In essence, I do agree with this. If we lived in a world without systematic oppression, I don’t think playing neurotypes or abilities out of your own would be bad. The issue though is that we don’t and no matter how much we try to distance ourselves from it, ableism, racism, and so forth are all so intertwined in our society that we can’t fully escape it.
The best we can do is become aware of how to be better, have conversations about it, and make changes beyond just our own perspective. It is harmful to neurotypical actors to play disabled characters on stage and screen.
Firstly, we can see the harm in pure numbers when looking at the employment rates of autistic people. Hiring an average person to play a disabled character contributes to the under and unemployment of disabled people.
Secondly, I am not seeing any casting decisions for 3 picture deals or primetime television roles for disabled people playing “normal”. There are no disabled actors winning Oscars and Tonys for playing superheroes and the girl next door. If you immediately thought, “they aren’t cast that way because they can’t do those roles”, bingo bango- that’s a bias you didn’t realize you had.
Third, Music includes scenes that very inaccurately portray restraints and physical intervention. A quote from the film describes a prone restraint as “I’m crushing her with my love”. As someone who is certified to handle crisis intervention in education settings, the absolute last resort is a safe restraint on a person who is immediately going to seriously hurt themself or another person.
In my 5+ years certified, I’ve only witnessed a few physical interventions that helped block a student from hurting themself. I have absolutely never seen anything close to the prone position on the ground portrayed in Sia’s film. In this scene, there were no attempts at de-escalation or meeting sensory needs, it was just a straight jump to extreme physical restraint. There should always be at minimum two trained individuals present for accountability. The Child Welfare League of America estimated in the 90s that 8 - 10 children died every year in the United States due to incorrect restraint tactics while many more suffered serious injuries like friction burns and broken bones. Vice News reported that at least 20 children have died since 2001 from being restrained. Sia told fans that the scenes with restraining Music, the autistic character would be removed from the final cut after the initial outcry following a trailer. Sia did not follow through with that promise.
The autistic community fears that the poor depiction of how to communicate with autistic people depicted in Sia’s film will misinform viewers and lead to possible mistakes that could end in injury or death. This rebuttal has no legs when the reality of casting, story, and acknowledgments don’t exist for disabled people. Sometimes, it isn’t “just acting”.
“Sia has a special relationship with Ziegler. Stop being sensitive and realize she just wanted to cast her favorite star. There was so much intricate dancing that a professional dancer had to do the role.”
Yikes on bikes, this one might be less of an unconscious bias and more of a flat out decision to defend Sia. This comment really interests me because it comes from this perspective that this project HAD to be made, and poor Sia was just trying to make all the little pieces of a huge project fit the deadlines. Sia has millions of dollars and more opportunities at her fingertips than most people could ever imagine. This project did not need to be made if it wasn’t going to be done respectfully. Accommodations could have been made on set, but they were not. If Sia needed a neurotypical actor to play the kind of autistic person she made up for Music, then the autistic character is more of a fetish and infantilization that could only be done “correctly” by a neurotypical person, and therefore not a kind or accurate representation of autistic people.
Autistic people play autistic characters the best. Those flashing lights and busy atmospheres during the dance sequences are not what goes on in my head. I would avoid that environment at all costs actually. If any other autistic people have watched the film, I’m curious how the choreographed scenes felt for you.
Sia could have chosen from hundreds of other storylines for her and Zeigler to make together, but she chose this one. Also, don’t forget that in November on Twitter, Sia said that Maddie only came in after it didn’t work out with an autistic actor. That was not the truth. This project did not have respectful and inclusive intentions from the beginning.
To be clear, this conversation is about Sia and her creative team’s decisions, not Zeigler's. The dancer is a teen and was following directions from someone who has a huge influence over her career. I don’t think anyone is pointing fingers at Maddie.
Music, a film by Sia is a ghastly commandeering of the autistic culture and experience. The film shut out #actuallyautistic individuals to sell our existence as a propensity that is separate from our humanity.
Autism is not an injury. It is not a disease. Autism is a neurotype that characterizes itself in a spectrum of ways that vary from person to person and it is not a separate entity from me. There are not two versions of me; the one with autism and one where I can separate myself from it. I am not a puzzle that needs to be completed or figured out.
This film insinuates that I and other autistic people are all of these things without ever asking us. An actually autistic person would not have been autistic the right way to fit Sia’s narrative, because her narrative isn’t accurate to being autistic.
So how can you be an ally to autistic people?
Learn more about Autism Spectrum Disorder from autistic people through self-advocacy organizations like ASAN. Support a local or national organization that advocates for autistic people. Be wary of groups that are not run by/with autistic people. Family members of an autistic person are not the same as an actually autistic person. Nothing about us without us.
Elevate autistic voices! Be conscious of who you’re speaking over and use your privilege to create more space for autistic people to speak their experience.
Research local and national disability laws.
Support autistic artists! Start by checking out stand up comedians Joe Wells and Hannah Gadsby and watching the comedy series Everything’s Gonna Be Okay (2020).
Be inclusive! Create spaces and relationships that are accommodating to people with different sensory needs. Remember that services and supports for disabled people are not a cheat or a shortcut, they’re an equalizer.