'A Different Man' Star Adam Pearson Speaks Out About Harmful Tropes Actors With Disabilities Face in Hollywood

Adam Pearson is pointing out the way Hollywood lets down actors with disabilities.

The 39-year-old British actor stars in A Different Man alongside Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve.

The film tells the story of a man who undergoes major cosmetic surgery to change his disfigured facial appearance.

If you didn’t know, Adam has neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic condition that causes the skin to develop thousands of thick, non-cancerous tumors.

The actor recently spoke about stereotypes disabled performers often encounter in the film industry.

Keep reading to find out more…

“Normally there are three kinds of roles or tropes or stereotypes, whatever vernacular one wants to use,” Adam told Variety. “There’s either the villain – that because I have a disfigurement, I want to kill Batman or James Bond. Then there’s the victim – the ‘woe is me,’ small violin.”

He continued, “And then there’s the hero – that because I have a disfigurement but do regular dude stuff, whatever regular dude stuff is, I’m somehow braver than the average guy.”

Adam described how harmful it is when writers adhere to such tropes.

“I think it’s lazy writing,” he said. “Why are non-disabled people writing about disability without consultation? Because when that happens, the end result you might get it right once but nine times out of 10 it’s going to be really inauthentic and inaccurate and serve not only the disabled community accordingly but disabled cinema lovers accordingly.”

If you missed it, actress Selma Blair explained how she strives to normalize disabilities in Hollywood.

Watch the full clip of Adam’s interview here…