Danny Woodburn on Disability Bias in Hollywood

On stereotypes, disability representation in television, and authentic casting

By Grace Avila

There is power in storytelling—whether that be through books, music, art, or even television. But it also goes even deeper than that. According to Cultivation Theory, coined by George Gerbner and Larry Gross in 1976, our perception of reality is often influenced by long-term media exposure, specifically what we see on television. While television gives us the opportunity to learn about people’s lived experiences, it also has the power to do more harm than good when it just doesn’t get it right.

We sat down with actor Danny Woodburn to talk about disability in Hollywood. Woodburn is known for his roles in television projects such as Seinfeld, Jingle All the Way, Death to Smoochy, Watchman, and Mirror Mirror. A full list of the movies and television shows he played in can be found at his IMDb profile. Woodburn stated that there was a trope attached to the characters that he would play.

“And disability certainly has its tropes,” Woodburn said. “The angry disabled man: the guy who maybe lost his arm and is angry and is getting back at the world. Or the cure. We have to find a cure for this person and they become whole. Or they’re some sort of angelic, they have some sort of angelic power. They’re super ultra good, you know? Or they’re magical in some way.“

Other popularized tropes for disabled characters include the victim character, whose disability overshadows everything they are, as well as the supercrip, the character who somehow overcomes or conquers their disability. Woodburn gave the example of Daredevil, a lawyer by day, superhero by night in the Marvel comics.

“Daredevil is a classic example of that. He doesn’t necessarily have value as the blind man, but as a superhero who’s blind who has super senses… this sort of bat sonar and all these other, in essence, magical abilities,” Woodburn said. “And I like Daredevil. I think he’s great. It’s a great hero idea. But you know we’re sort of past that idea of creating those kinds of characters now so I can see Daredevil in a historical context, but I also realized that this was sort of the ideology around disability at the time.”

The Ruderman Family Foundation did a study on disability representation researching 350 television shows from 2016-2023. The study revealed that nearly 80% of characters with disabilities in television shows or movies were inauthentically cast and instead played by nondisabled actors. Likewise, only 3.9% of actors with disabilities were cast on the big screen despite the fact that 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. has a disability.

---

"Nearly 80% of characters with disabilities in television shows or movies were inauthentically cast and instead played by nondisabled actors. Likewise, only 3.9% of actors with disabilities were cast on the big screen despite the fact that 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. has a disability."

---

In the past few years, there have been more stories with authentic disability representation that are being told. For example, there is Echo, a Deaf vigilante in the Marvel comics who got her own show in 2024. She is portrayed by Alaqua Cox, a Deaf Menominee actor and amputee. While she uses American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate, many of her costars also used ASL and simultaneously spoke out loud throughout the show. Likewise, the movie Out of My Mind is a movie adaptation of the book with the same name. The story follows sixth grader Melody Brooks, who is a wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, who navigates middle school and finds her voice through assistive technology and the support of her family and friends. In the movie, Melody is portrayed by Phoebe-Rae Taylor, who also has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.

“There’s more of an awareness of these tropes that they’re being avoided,” Woodburn said. “And that, we're just casting people for the sake of casting people.”

When viewers have the opportunity to see authentic disability representation onscreen, the stereotypical portrayals of disabled characters becomes glaringly problematic. Once someone sees disability done right, they are also able to recognize when it is done wrong. Hiring disabled actors and storytellers and giving them creative freedom surrounding their characters allows them to take center stage. When disability is not portrayed as a tragedy or used as a plot device, it allows disabled people to tell their stories their way.