# Is it reasonable for activists to want a deaf of blind actress to play Helen Keller? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 31, 2009, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867 "2009-10-31T18:39:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867/61 "2009-11-05T01:55:47Z")
I’m surprised there’s been no mention of TROPIC THUNDER: Robert Downey, Jr. as Kirk Lazarus as Lincoln Osiris ([NSFW clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzbIRUtjCgU)) from the same movie in which Tom Cruise played a fat guy ([NSFW clip](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttBykidgVkY)) in by far his best performance in many years. An interesting case is Shirley Q. Liquor, a drag queen that many people thought was hysterical (I challenge you to listen to [may be NSFW Titanic Reprise](http://www.imeem.com/supergoober/music/j4J5T8SJ/shirley-q-liquor-titanic-reprise/)without laughing) but many of the same people became furious upon learning “she” was not just a man but white. ---
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867/62 "2009-11-05T02:45:53Z")
No one got upset with Linda Hunt played a dude in\*\* The Year of Living Dangerously\*\*. And one of the most frequent criticisms you hear about stars is “That he plays himself in every movie.” Remember **Orlando**? Tilda Swinton played a dude, too. Didn’t seem to upset the men of Hollywood too much. Of course, if John Wayne had been alive … ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867/63 "2009-11-05T02:50:50Z")
> [@Lethal\_Babydoll](#): > > Remember **Orlando**? Tilda Swinton played a dude, too. Didn’t seem to upset the men of Hollywood too much. Of course, if John Wayne had been alive … ORLANDO as a Wayne/O’Hara vehicle might have been interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867/64 "2009-11-06T19:12:54Z")
I just started watching _Breaking Bad_ and thought of this thread. I looked up RJ Mitte, the kid who plays Walter Jr. who on the show has CP which causes him to have a speech impediment and rely upon crutches. I googled [an interview](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy9uMIgH16s) and a bio and evidently the speech impediment is real but the actor doesn’t really need crutches and in fact mentioned that he enjoys running, so IRL he really does have CP but a much milder case than his character. I’m wondering if there would have been an outcry if the character had been portrayed by a healthy actor (i.e. one without CP). I don’t recall an outcry over _My Left Foot_ starring the able bodied Daniel Day Lewis, though there may have been. Off topic on Mitte, but what I think’s great is that he has a big tweengirl fan base- i.e. that there’s a guy with a physical disability who’s a sex symbol without an asterix by his name. Of course I also wished that they would pursue a Jewel and Doc relationship on _Deadwood_ to show, among other things, that people with disabilities are fully sexual (‘and how’ in some cases- I’ve known some who were, perhaps due to a compensation need or perhaps because they were just horny kids, were outright sluts/horndogs in high school and college- which IIRC Marlee Matlin’s character was in _Children of a Lesser God_). Of course the main complaint I’ve heard from people with CP and people with hearing loss isn’t about prejudice towards their handicap but aggravation over people assuming they’re mentally retarded due to their speech when in fact it doesn’t affect their intelligence one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867/65 "2009-11-06T19:30:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’m surprised there’s been no mention of TROPIC THUNDER: Robert Downey, Jr. as Kirk Lazarus as Lincoln Osiris He was a white man playing a white man playing a black man. I guess the fictional audience of the fictional movie-in-the-movie could have railed against a white man being hired to play a black man. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867/66 "2009-11-11T21:04:07Z")
How about voiceovers? Dwayne Johnson playing a white man in Planet 51? ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867/67 "2009-11-12T23:05:29Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > How about voiceovers? Dwayne Johnson playing a white man in Planet 51? Well, if you’re going to go that route, aren’t pretty much all the (non-guest) roles on the Simpsons played by white voice actors. Yes, even Carl. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-reasonable-for-activists-to-want-a-deaf-of-blind-actress-to-play-helen-keller/515867.md?page=3)