Cripping-up is the act of casting an actor without an apparent/visible disability into a role which is either scripted as having a disability, or into the role of an historical figure who is known to have been disabled. The term is from the audience's perspective where the visibly apparent disability is mimicked by an actor who does not have physical, sensory or communication disability. This does not always include disabled actors being cast in roles with different conditions to their own as the practice of transposing a condition in to a role can creatively work because the actor has a "lived experience" of disability.
The term "cripping-up" began to appear in mainstream media around 2010. [1] It is a derivative of the word "crip" and is used to call out certain casting practices in stage, TV drama and film production with particular focus on The Academy Awards [2] [3] on screen and the portrayal of disabled icons such as King Richard III, Frida Kahlo or Joseph Merrick, or disabled fictional characters such as Tiny Tim, Meshak Gardiner or Nessarose on stage. The academic discussion, [4] focuses on the extent of the practice and the nuances in its interpretation, which extends to exploring the differences between embodiment and impersonation, and how without the lived experience of disability changes the relationship between the audience and the production through ‘the cure of the curtain call’ (i.e. the moment when a non-disabled performer is revealed as such after portraying a disabled character). [5] This issue was further mapped out in the MacTaggart lecture delivered by screenwriter Jack Thorne [6] [7] at the Edinburgh Television Festival in 2021.
A call against cripping-up has become part of the disability rights movement, and a vocal lobby of acting and creative professions [8] [9] [10] are actively engaged with the industry for more authentically and creatively when it comes to disability portrayal. This includes industry professionals such as the director of My Left Foot, Jim Sheridan [11] and others within the industry have joined this call for change. This has led to instances such as disabled actors and writers calling on the UK TV and film industry at BAFTA to be more proactive. [12]
As a result, there are more TV, Film and stage productions are casting authentically or incidentally, with organisations like Netflix and BBC Studios forming a disabled writers partnership, [13] The Profile [14] was launched in 2021 which is casting resource created by the Royal National Theatre giving the industry access to professional disabled actor showcases. Channel 4 (UK) created new guidance for portrayal, [15] and the Creative Diversity Network (CDN) [16] has developed the data platform Diamond, [17] which is used by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Paramount, S4C, Warner Bros. Discovery, UKTV and Sky TV to obtain consistent diversity data on programmes they commission which includes disability representation onscreen.
There are parallels with movement for better representation for Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities which have led the way with colour-blind casting, that covers incidental portrayal. The emotion felt by disabled communities was summed up by Frances Ryan in The Guardian 2015.
"...disabled characters create powerful images and sentiments for audiences. They can symbolise the triumph of the human spirit over so-called “adversity”. They can represent what it is to be “different” in some way, an outsider or an underdog who ultimately becomes inspirational. These are universal feelings every audience member can identify with. And there is something a little comforting in knowing, as we watch the star jump around the red carpet, that none of it – the pain or negativity we still associate with disability – was real. Perhaps that's part of the problem. Perhaps as a society we see disability as a painful external extra rather than a proud, integral part of a person, and so it doesn't seem quite as insulting to have non-disabled actors don prosthetics or get up from a wheelchair when the director yells “cut”. But for many disabled people in the audience, this is watching another person fake their identity. When it comes to race, we believe it is wrong for the story of someone from a minority to be depicted by a member of the dominant group for mass entertainment. But we don't grant disabled people the same right to self-representation." [18]
The call for change in industry practices has come from organisations such as 1in4 Coalition, [19] Equity UK, [20] TripleC, [21] UK Disability Arts Alliance [22] as well as disabled actors such as Kurt Yeager, [23] Amy Trigg [24] and Liz Carr [25] [26]
Disability portrayal, whether it is authentic or incidental, [27] focuses on cultural markers that show the audience a character has trait, need or condition without having to state what the condition is. Traits or needs are aspects of a character a writer or director may identify without stating what the cause is, because the cause my not be central to the story. When stories are about historical figures their conditions are often well documented. [28]
Fictional characters can be less obvious and often disability characteristics are described rather than the writer medically naming specific conditions. This can be seen in plays like The Metamorphosis where the changing into a bug, the main character has difficulty interfacing with a world that is neither designed for him or accepting of him, which are core to understanding what is referred to as the disability lived experience. [29] [30]
The works of Samuel Beckett use literal disability as a metaphor to explore ideas of hopelessness, dependency and autonomy, but the characters such as Winnie and Willie in Happy Days, Pozzo and Estragon in Waiting for Godot, and Hamm, Clov, Nagg and Nell in Endgame, all have physical disability characteristics. In her book, Samuel Beckett and Disability Performance, author Hannah Simpson reveals how Beckett's theatre compulsively interrogates alternative embodiments, unexpected forms of agency, and the extraordinary social interdependency of the human body. [31]
Being creative is about making interesting choices. Having an actor who is disabled play either a disable role or a role that is not scripted as disabled is always an interesting choice as it changes the relationship with the audience, knowing the visible condition being seen isn’t an act challenges the audiences own preconceptions about disability. Because Ableism, negative unconscious biases and patronising attitudes towards disabled people in general exist, these add layers to an audience experience a non-disabled actor can’t access. As Ford-Williams once said, “putting a disabled person on a stage is a postmodernist act in itself.”
Academic and performer Jessie Parrot coined the phrase, “the cure of the curtain call,” [5] highlighting this change of relationship between a production and an audience going beyond the final bow and having a deeper impact beyond just one of entertainment.
Disabled roles have been played by non-disabled actors going back to the silent era, with films like The Penalty in 1920, and City Lights 1931 and Frankenstein 1931, being early examples where non-disabled actors played disabled character on-screen.
There were few disabled actors before the 1990s available to play authentic or incidental roles, and the few examples were mostly covered by only 6 actors;
Historically the majority of disabled roles went to non-disabled actors [34] but with more disabled actors available, the number of instances of cripping-up has decreased with the majority of disabled characters being authentically cast:
To illustrate the extent of cripping-up on screen and the movement away from the practice, these are the instances of disability casting for superheroes and super villains.
This genre of storytelling is littered with characters who are disabled and have had to overcome barriers, then face more barriers because of stigma, attitudes and prejudice towards difference. A core theme of X-Men is otherness, and it dives deeply into different types of prejudice.
There are over 70 characters in the combined DC and Marvel who have physical, sensory or other apparent disabilities, many have yet to make an appearance on-screen. This list focuses on live action productions and identifies what roles have been cast authentically in terms of disability characteristic, and which have been played by non-disabled actors, purely as an example of how widespread cripping-up has been. This is not a reflection on the choices made by the actors as historically there has been less awareness and historically there have been fewer actors with disabilities.
| Character | Disability | Movies or TV Shows | Disabled Actor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Makkari | Deaf | Eternals (2021) | Lauren Ridloff |
| Maya Lopez / Echo | Deaf | Hawkeye (2021) Echo (2024) | Alaqua Cox |
| The Penguin | Physical disability and difficulties with movement. | Batman Returns (1992) | Danny Devito |
| Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin | Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) | Daredevil (2015) Hawkeye (2021) Echo (2024) Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (2025) Daredevil: Born Again (2025) | Vincent D'Onofrio |
| Character | Disability | Movies or TV Shows | Non-Disabled Actor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abraham Whistler | Whistler walks with a limp and so uses a cane. Apparent bone and nerve damage in one of the legs | Blade (1998) Blade II (2002) Blade: Trinity (2004) | Kris Kristofferson |
| Agent Phil Coulson | Limb difference from losing a hand and having a prosthetic one. | Iron Man (2008) Iron Man 2 (2010) Thor (2011) Avengers Assemble (2012) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Slingshot (2016) Captain Marvel (2019) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV Series (2013 to 2020) | Clark Gregg |
| Alecia Masters | Blind | The Fantastic Four (1994) officially unreleased | Kat Green |
| Alecia Masters | Blind | Fantastic Four (2005) | Kerry Washington |
| Barbara Minerva AKA Cheetah | Has mobility problems, uses a cane and suffers pain in her non-cheetah form. Her disability was erased in the movie script. | Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) | Kristen Wiig |
| Bucky Barnes AKA Winter Soldier | Limb Difference | Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Ant-Man (2015) Captain America: Civil War (2016) Black Panther (2018) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Avengers: Endgame (2019) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021 Thunderbolts* (2025). | Sebastian Stan |
| Caliban | He has albinism and he is condition is so disabling for him, he can be killed by strong sunlight, which limits where he can go and when. This is an interesting metaphor for people with autoimmune disorders. He has a lived experience similar to a disabled person's. | Logan (2017) | Stephen Marchant |
| Charles Xavier AKA Professor X | Wheelchair User | X-Men (2000) X-Men 2 (2003) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) The Wolverine (2013) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) Logan (2017) | Patrick Stewart |
| Charles Xavier AKA Professor X | Wheelchair User | X-Men: First Class (2011) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Deadpool 2 (2018) X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) | James McAvoy |
| Clint Barton AKA Hawkeye | Deafness His disability was erased in the movie script, then re-introduced later in the series. | Thor (2011) Avengers Assemble (2012) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Captain America: Civil War (2016) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Hawkeye TV Series (2021) | Jeremy Renner |
| Clifford DeVoe AKA Thinker | Wheelchair User | The Flash TV Series (2017) | Neil Sandilands |
| Cliff Steel AKA Robot Man | His entire body has been replaced with a metal prosthetic. | Doom Patrol (2019) | Brendan Fraser |
| Cable | He has a virus that is slowly eating away at his body, so more and more of him is preplaced with technology. | Deadpool 2 (2018) | Josh Brolin |
| Dr. Strange | Motor Disability in both hands which ends his career as a brilliant surgeon. He has tremors, shaking, motor dysfunction and numbness. | Doctor Strange (2016) Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) | Benedict Cumberbatch |
| Daredevil | Blind | Daredevil (2003) | Ben Affleck |
| Daredevil | Blind | Daredevil TV Series (2015 to 2018) The Defenders (miniseries) (2017) Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022) Echo, TV Series (2023 to 2024) Daredevil: Born Again (2025) | Charlie Cox |
| Dr. Curt Connors AKA Lizard | Limb difference. Lost his left arm and usually functions even without a prosthesis | Spider-man 2 (2004) Spider-man 3 (2007) | Dylan Baker |
| Dr. Curt Connors AKA The Lizard | Limb difference | The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) | Rhys Ifans |
| Dr. Niles Caulder AKA Chief | Wheelchair user. | Doom Patrol (2019) | Timothy Dalton |
| Dr. Charles McNider AKA Doctor Mid-Night | Blind. | Stargirl (2020) | Alex Collins |
| Earl Gregg / Bob Stanford / Deathstroke | Vision Impaired, one eye and no depth of field vision | Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993) | Antonio Sabàto Jr. |
| Freddy Freeman (Captain Marvel Jr) | Motor disability (Freddy Freeman) | Shazam! (2019) Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) | Jack Dylan Grazer |
| James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes AKA War Machine | Motor disability with mechanical leg braces | Iron Man 2 (2010) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Captain Marvel (2019) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Secret Invasion (2023) | Don Cheadle |
| Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee | Cognitive or learning disability | Generation X (1996) | Heather McComb |
| Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee | Cognitive or learning disability | X-Men (2000) | Katrina Florece |
| Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee | Cognitive or learning disability | X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) | Kea Wong |
| Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee | Cognitive or learning disability | X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) | Lana Condor |
| Komand’r AKA Blackfire | She can’t metabolise solar radiation and fly) but she is still portrayed as disabled and ‘crippled’ according to Tamaranean society | Titans (2019 to 2021) | Damaris Lewis |
| Madame Web | Blind and paralyzed. Her origin story was changed in the movie, and she wasn’t disabled until the end. | Madame Web (2024) | Dakota Johnson |
| Mike Peterson AKA Deathlok | Nearly his entire body has been replaced by prosthetic cybernetics | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013 to 2014) | J. August Richards |
| Misty Knight | limb difference and a prosthetic bionic arm | Luke Cage (2016 to 2018) The Defenders (miniseries) (2017) Iron Fist (2017 to 2018) | Simone Missick |
| Nick Fury | Vision impaired and facial scaring | Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (1998) | David Hasselhoff |
| Nick Fury | Vision impaired and facial scaring | Iron Man (2008) Iron Man 2 (2010) Thor (2011) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Avengers Assemble (2012) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV Series (2013 to 2020) Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Captain Marvel (2019) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019) The Marvels (2023) Secret Invasion (2023) | Samuel L Jackson |
| Nebula | Amputee with cybernetic prosthetics | Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017) Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Avengers: Endgame (2019) Thor: Love and Thunder (2022) | Karen Gillan |
| Odin | Vision impaired and he has several body parts missing. | Thor (2011) Thor: The Dark World (2013) Thor: Ragnarok (2017) | Sir Anthony Hopkins |
| Rogue | She cannot touch anyone without causing them serious harm or even killing them, which means she lives a physically isolated life. This is a metaphor for people with autoimmune or skin conditions where touch is harmful, so they are physically isolated. She has a lived experience similar to a disabled person's. | X-Men (2000) X-Men 2 (2003) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) | Anna Paquin |
| Stick | Blind | Daredevil, TV Series (2015 to 2018) The Defenders (miniseries) (2017) | Scott Glen |
| Scott Summers AKA Cyclops | He cannot control his condition without a specific technology, and this also affects his vision. The visor helps his integrate as best as possible with is an interesting metaphor for the types of medial and assistive technology that enable disabled people to integrate. He has a lived experience similar to a disabled person's. | X-Men 2 (2003) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) | James Marsden |
| Sean Sonus AKA Discord | Deafness. | Arrow (2012 to 2020) | Manu Bennett |
| Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke | Vision Impaired | Smallville (2010) | Michael Hogan |
| Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke | Vision Impaired | Arrow (2012 to 2020) | Manu Bennet |
| Slade Wilson AKA Deathstroke | Vision Impaired | Titans (2010) | Esai Morales |
| The Penguin | Physical disability and difficulties with movement. | Batman Series (1966 to 1968) Batman: The Movie (1966) | Burgess Meredith |
| The Penguin | Physical disability and difficulties with movement. | The Batman (2022) The Penguin (2024) | Colin Farrell |
| Victor Fries AKA Mr Freeze | He requires usage of assistive tech (his cryo-suit) to live and move | Batman & Robin (1997) | Arnold Schwarzenegger |
| Victor Stone AKA Cyborg | Physical disability and cybernetic prosthetics | Smallville (2006 to 2010) | Lee Thompson Young |
| Victor Stone AKA Cyborg | Physical disability and cybernetic prosthetics | Doom Patrol (2019 to 2023) Titans TV series (2023) | Joivan Wade. |
| Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin | Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) | The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989) | Michael Clarke Duncan |
| Wilson Fisk AKA Kingpin | Autistic Spectrum Condition (ASC) | Daredevil (2003) | John Rhys-Davies |
Disabled characters in stage plays have a longer history stretching as far back as Tiresias in Oedipus, by Sophocles. There are many disabled historical disabled figures as well as disabled fictional characters such as Laura in The Glass Menagerie, Meshak Gardiner in Coram Boy, Colin in The Secret Garden, Captain Ahab in Moby Dick , Barquentine in Gormenghast or The Monster in Frankenstein, that whom, up until recently, have not been accessible to disabled actors. Like film and television, this has changed with mainstream theatre companies casting more disabled actors and enabling the disabled community to reclaim their stories. [44]
Before the 1900s disabilities were more commonplace due to wars, poor healthcare and work related injuries, with disabled people playing active roles in society. [45] In royalty and nobility disabled people were visible, an example being such as Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, whom like Richard III had scoliosis. Disabled people played important roles at court, [46] such as The Fool, who was often someone with a learning, cognitive or physical disability such as cerebral palsy, and there are clues to this with the Fool being named "Gobbo", in the Merchant of Venice, which was an offensive Italian word for Hunchback. Other times references are more direct characters being referred to as “deformed”, [47] “cripple”, [48] “sick” or “monstrous", such as the mention of Katherina's impairment, "Why does the world report that Kate doth limpe?, or references to "palsy" in Henry VI Part 2, Richard II and Troilus and Cressida, "And with a palsy fumbling on his gorget".
Based on the scripts and historical evidence there are disability signifiers for 26 characters in 19 plays.
| Play | Character | Disability Characteristic or Signifier |
|---|---|---|
| Julius Caesar | Julius Caesar | Was known to suffer from epilepsy and suffered from the associated stigma from being disabled. [49] There is no historical record of Julius Caesar being hearing impaired, so that particular impairment can be put down to Shakespeare's artistic license. |
| Henry VI pt 3 | Richard Plantagenet – later Duke of Gloucester | Richard III was known to have scoliosis however Shakespeare exaggeration of his characteristics and focus on his lived experience as a disabled person and the ableism he has and does endure leaves casting open to wide interpretation. |
| King Lear | Earl of Gloucester | Is blinded. [50] |
| Macbeth | The Witches | These are based on the three Graeae witches from Greek Mythology who were physically and vision disabled. Witches having disabilities is also common in British folklore. [51] |
| Othello | Othello | Othello has a seizure in Act 4, Scene 1 which could be a signifier of conditions, including but not limited to epilepsy. [52] |
| Richard III and The Wars of the Roses | King Richard III | See Henry VI pt 3. Richard has scoliosis, and this is probably the first play ever written about ableism [53] |
| The Merchant of Venice | Lancelot Gobbo | See Fools and the name "Gobbo" being an insult as it means "hunchback". |
| The Merchant of Venice | Old Gobbo | Vision Impaired |
| The Taming of The Shrew | Katherina | Referred to as having "a limp". [54] |
| The Tempest | Caliban | His physical disability and deformity are a core part of the characterisation. [55] |
The Fool at court was often person who had a particular level of privilege, but who also had learning, cognitive or physical disabilities, and so disability casting is considered historically accurate. [56]
The following characters are identified as Fools.
A role that has been at the forefront of the Theatre and Disability movement is the Duke of Gloucester/The King in Shakespeare's play Richard III. [57] This is not because the king himself had scoliosis, [58] which is exaggerated in the play, [59] but one of the key themes of the play is Ableism and the attitudes of his family and the court towards Richard, [53] in part shaping whom he became and how he acted.
Since 2004, King Richard III has been played by the following disabled actors:
In a recent article in The Stage, [72] Josefa MacKinnon, creative programme developer for access and inclusion at the Royal Shakespeare Company, states that non-disabled actors playing the role as disabled should be a thing of the past.
“I think there are a lot of audiences that find it very difficult to watch non-disabled actors playing disabled characters.”
Incidental disability portrayal is different to authentic portrayal as it is about having the right to portray a role regardless of whether a character is scripted as having a disability or not. An example of this is Bridgerton series 3 on Netflix, 2024. Shondaland cast two visibly disabled actors in roles that were not scripted with a disability story. Sophie Woolley [73] was cast as Lady Stowell, and Zak Ford-Williams [74] as Lord Remmington. [75] [76]
In Theatre and Disability terms if a play does not say how a character enters a room, why do we assume they walked. Unconscious biases towards disabled actors are seen as the biggest barriers to inclusion.
Zak Ford-Williams wrote in 2024, "I feel amidst the advances being made embedding D/deaf, neurodivergent and disability equality within our industry, a disabled person on a stage or screen is still a political act. The presence of marginalised groups can bring about social and political change: the normalised presence of marginalised groups cements it." [77]
In 2014 despite his award-winning portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking the film The Theory of Everything, the casting of Eddie Redmayne came under scrutiny [78] as to whether portraying someone with a progressive condition constituted "cripping-up", [79] as this raised questions and suggestions that included having two actors, or even using CGI. The practicalities where all theoretical until in contrast the BBC's 2022 drama production Better, cast the disabled actor Zak Ford-Williams in a role where at first he had to mask his cerebral palsy, and then unmask it after his character Owen survives meningitis. Ford-Williams used his experience as a physically disabled actor who has had to learn to walk again twice after medial procedures, which demonstrated the possibility of disabled actors playing progressive conditions. [80]
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