'Not just one thing' Wicked star calls for range in disabled roles

The disabled actor Marissa Bode, who plays the prominent role of Nessarose Thropp in the hit film musical Wicked and its forthcoming sequel Wicked: For Good, has called for improved representation for disabled performers in the entertainment

- Niamh Ní Hoireabhaird

industry - and specifically an end to what activists call “cripping up” - casting non-disabled actors in disabled character roles.

“I really hope my casting sets a precedent,” said Bode, adding: “It’s just navigating a world and a system that we have just not been acknowledged in as we should be.”

The US inclusivity foundation the Ruderman Family found that only 21% of disabled characters on US TV between 2016 and 2023 were played by disabled actors.

When she was cast in Wicked, Bode made history as the first disabled actor to play Nessarose; the character is a wheelchair-user, but since the stage version premiered in 2003, only non-disabled actors have played the role. Bode is calling on casting directors to follow the Wicked director Jon M Chu’s lead to use disabled actors for disabled roles, and to cast disabled actors in other roles where the character’s physical ability is not specified.