Making Sure Disability Stays In The Conversation After COVID


Teal ShererIn January, Danielle Perez seductively maneuvered her wheelchair around a stripper pole in a parody of the film Hustlers for the CBS Diversity Showcase at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. The audience was full of casting directors, agents, managers and showrunners.

“It was a sketch I really fought for,” Perez, who is a stand-up comedian, told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m disabled. I don’t have feet. I have a manual wheelchair. I’m fat. I’m Afro-Latina. You don’t get to see women like me in roles that are sexy, fun and powerful.”

Danielle Perez
Danielle Perez

The CBS event was designed to boost the chances of minorities seeking opportunities in Hollywood, and for Perez, a bilateral below-the-knee amputee, it succeeded. She was cast in two projects, including a recurring role in a Netflix series. Then, the coronavirus outbreak struck.  “Obviously there are people dying, there are bigger things in the world, but it was devastating to shoot one show and to be getting ready to shoot another, and have both of them pause indefinitely,” says the 36-year-old.

Perez is not the only disabled actor to lose out on work because of the pandemic. Robert Romani, who has spina bifida, had just booked a guest star role on NBC’s Law and Order: Special Victims Unit when filming shut down. “I have been acting for 20 years. It was my first big break,” says the 55-year-old.

With their momentum derailed, many performers with disabilities are using the time to reflect, work on their craft and find new ways to be creative — all while pondering the future of disability representation in media.

“Since we don’t know what the future of theater, TV and film is going to be, we are now having conversations about how we can make sure that disability gets centered when we do eventually go back to work,” says Christine Bruno, an actor and sought-after disability inclusion consultant who facilitates accessibility and inclusion workshops. “[We need to ensure] that all of the gains that we made in the past two, three years don’t get siloed and backburnered again.”

Some of the gains Bruno refers to are the increase in disability representation and the industry’s acknowledgment that it is important and needed. For example, last year CBS signed the Ruderman Family Foundation’s pledge to audition more performers with disabilities. The Black List — an annual survey of Hollywood executives’ favorite unproduced screenplays — partnered with the Media Access Awards, Easterseals, and the Writers Guild of America Writers with Disabilities Committee, to create The Disability List, a curated list of the most promising unproduced scripts featuring at least one lead character with a disability.

“At first everyone was asking, ‘When are we going to get back to normal?’ And I think people have begun to realize that we are never going to be where we were in February and nor should we,” says Bruno, who has cerebral palsy. “We want to look at this an opportunity to do better, to be better. Now in this time of reimagining rather than resetting … who do we want to be when we come back?”

Christine Bruno and Chris Henry Coffey in Public Servant by Bekah Brunstetter.
Christine Bruno and Chris Henry Coffey in Public Servant by Bekah Brunstetter. Photo courtesy of Theater Row/Carol Rosegg.

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A positive takeaway of the shutdown is that acting classes are being offered online, which in many cases, makes them more accessible. “I have wanted to take a character transformation workshop for the past couple of years, but the practitioner is based in London, and when he comes to New York, the places he teaches aren’t accessible. Now it is being offered online, so I was able to do that,” says Bruno.

What Perez, who performs at comedy clubs and festivals across the country, misses most is doing stand-up. “There are not a lot of spaces where I can be a disabled woman of color who is in charge and being heard,” she says. “When I am on stage, I am the show. I am running the room. I am in charge, and I am going to tell these jokes. I am going to entertain people. I am the one orchestrating the energy in the room.  There is a lot of power in that, and it is really gratifying.”

Though productions are slowly starting to ramp up with stringent COVID-19 precautions in place, it is uncertain when Perez and other actors with disabilities will be back on stage or on set. In the meantime, Perez is performing in online comedy shows via Zoom and Instagram Live, filming sketches with her roommates, and developing Wow Rude, a podcast about pop culture, friendship and being too much. “Now more than ever I want to create and share what I find funny, and I want to have a good time doing it,” she says.

Update: The series that Perez was cast in earlier this year has resumed production. Prior to filming, Perez had a COVID-19 test and attended a Zoom workshop that laid out the protocols on set. “It feels so good to be working, and I feel very safe, which I am thankful for as I do have asthma and a history of pneumonia,” says Perez. To see her hilarious take on disability, dating and sex, check out her videos at thedanielleperez.com.

Follow on Instagram
Danielle Perez: @divadelux
Christine Bruno: @christinebrunonyc
Robert Romani: @rjromani


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