Despite the increasing acceptance of autism as the years go by and a broadly better understanding of the condition itself, as well as the kinds of lives that come with it, intentional autistic representation in media is rare. Even more rare is well-executed autistic representation.
That’s why whenever an actor gives a good performance of a well-written autistic character, presumed or explicit, it’s vital for the actor in question to get assessed for an autism diagnosis.
The fact of the matter is, there are so many characters all throughout the media that autistic people relate to, and it goes far beyond characters explicitly written to be autistic. Because weird people are interesting.
If writers construct a story worth telling, the odds are that the characters in it will not have the smoothest and most even-keeled personalities.
When Zooey Deschanel epitomized the “adorkable” archetype in “New Girl,” complete with constant musical echolalia, autistic television enthusiasts obviously saw something of themselves in her. Sorry, Zooey, but you might have to learn something new about yourself.
And that wasn’t even on purpose! In the case of explicit representation, Abed Nadir on “Community” was written with so much relatability that series creator Dan Harmon got an autism diagnosis halfway through production! And yet, as far as the public knows, actor Danny Pudi, who played Abed, remains tragically untested. This must be rectified!
Autistic and autistic-coded characters have been part of movies and television for a long time, and yet the presence of autistic actors playing those characters, even when they’re good, remains sparse. Or does it? Let’s create more autistic characters on purpose!
Look, I’m not saying that the casting proccess for characters who could be autistic should exclusively feature auditions of actors that have been formally diagnosed. But if an actor that hasn’t been formally diagnosed gets the part? For god’s sake, they need to investigate it.