My Fake Policeman ("MP" 2)

Spoilers for the movie My Policeman

Another issue I have with the movie My Policeman (along with a slur being used) is the wheelchair user representation.

The ONLY wheelchair user character (who is also mostly nonverbal) is played by an able-bodied (non-wheelchair user), not nonverbal person.

Rupert Everett plays Patrick in the 90s.

The character is mostly nonverbal and a wheelchair user who requires help from nurses and Marion. At this point in time, Patrick’s right arm (and maybe the whole right part of his body) is also paralyzed. When Patrick moves around on his own, he does so in his manual wheelchair by dragging his left foot across the floor. None of this Rupert actually experiences for real.

This bothers me because Rupert is playing a life he doesn’t understand - and won’t unless he actually experiences it in real life.

I understand acting is a job (at least in this case) and pretending to be someone you’re not (and sometimes pretending to be in a different career/job than you are), but being disabled shouldn’t be a part of that. Disability isn’t some job or hobby or skill someone can learn to do. There isn’t one correct way to be disabled. You can’t “learn how to be disabled” like you can learn how to cook, sing, knit, etc. I know how I operate being a wheelchair user, but that could easily be different to how Ali Stroker operates as a wheelchair user.

In regards to Rupert being the only wheelchair user character in the whole movie: In almost two hours, the only wheelchair user is a man faking it.

There also could’ve been actual wheelchair users in public. There could’ve been actual wheelchair users going down the street. There could’ve been actual wheelchair users in a shop. Again, there’s no one correct way to be disabled. There is no one correct way to be a wheelchair user. Yes there are people who require help with different things. And there are also people who don’t. We’re human beings who can be seen in public.

Actual wheelchair users were excluded from the movie. Wheelchair users can act. Many of us really want to. It’s not impossible to hire one of us.

This “representation” - this exclusion - is not okay.