‘Glee’ hits a sour note with the disabled

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The glee club members twirl their wheelchairs to the tune of “Proud Mary” and in joyful solidarity with Artie, the fellow performer who must use his chair even when the music stops.

The scene in tonight’s episode of the hit Fox series “Glee,” which regularly celebrates diversity and the underdog, was yet another uplifting moment — except to those in the entertainment industry with disabilities and their advocates.

For them, the casting of a non-disabled actor to play the paraplegic high school student is another blown chance to hire a performer who truly fits the role.

“I think there’s a fear of litigation, that a person with disabilities might slow a production down, fear that viewers might be uncomfortable,” said Robert David Hall, longtime cast member of CBS’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

All of that is nonsense, said Hall: “I’ve made my living as an actor for 30 years, and I walk on two artificial legs.”

Hall, 61, chair of a multi-union committee for performers with disabilities, is part of a small band of such steadily working actors on TV that includes Daryl “Chill” Mitchell, star of Fox’s “Brothers”; teenager RJ Mitte of AMC’s “Breaking Bad”; and ABC’s “Private Practice” newcomer Michael Patrick Thornton.

Veteran actress Geri Jewell, who has cerebral palsy, appeared on HBO’s now-departed “Deadwood.”

Mitchell, 44, whose credits included “Veronica’s Closet” and the film “Galaxy Quest” before he was injured in a motorcycle accident and “Ed” after he began using a wheelchair, is also a producer on the Sunday sitcom.

It’s not just TV that falls short of what Mitchell and others seek, including auditioning those with disabilities for roles that echo their situation and for roles in which it is irrelevant. (Then it’s up to them to prove they deserve the job, Hall said.)

In the theater world, advocacy groups for the disabled recently objected to the casting of Abigail Breslin (“Little Miss Sunshine”) as young Helen Keller in a Broadway revival of “The Miracle Worker,” and a hearing actor’s selection for a deaf role in the off-Broadway “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”

In films, Daniel Day-Lewis received an Academy Award for his portrayal of a man with severe cerebral palsy in “My Left Foot” and Tom Cruise was nominated for an Oscar for playing a paralyzed Vietnam veteran in “Born on the Fourth of July.”

“Glee” executive producer Brad Falchuk said he understands the concern and frustration expressed by the disabled community. But Kevin McHale, 21, who plays Artie, excels as an actor and singer and “it’s hard to say no to someone that talented,” Falchuk said.

In casting “Glee,” “we brought in anyone: white, black, Asian, in a wheelchair,” he said. “It was very hard to find people who could really sing, really act, and have that charisma you need on TV.”