Alec Baldwin Is Under Fire For Portraying A Blind Man In Upcoming Film

Alec Baldwin is being called out for accepting the lead in the upcoming film Blind, in which he will play a blind novelist.

ALEC BALDWIN NEWS: BLIND ADVOCACY GROUPS UNHAPPY

People are upset by an able-bodied actor portraying someone with a disability. The film, due out July 14, sees Baldwin as an author who loses his sight in a car accident. Later, he has an affair with a married woman (Demi Moore).

Advocacy organization the Ruderman Family Foundation issued a statement criticizing the casting of the film. “Alec Baldwin in Blind is just the latest example of treating disability as a costume,” foundation president Jay Ruderman said. “We no longer find it acceptable for white actors to portray black characters. Disability as a costume needs to also become universally unacceptable.”

The foundation previously brought up issue with last year’s Me Before You, in which Sam Claflin portrayed a paralyzed man. Last July, they released the Ruderman White Paper on Employment of Actors With Disabilities in Television, which found that about 95% of characters with disabilities were portrayed by able-bodied actors.

“This is nothing short of a social justice issue where a marginalized group of people is not given the right to self-representation,” the study 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. We also provide a list of resources where actors with disabilities can be proactively reached.”