What happened: Award-winning actor Octavia Spencer joined the Ruderman Family Foundation in asking the entertainment industry to cast more disabled actors to play characters with the same disability.
In a video posted on YouTube, Spencer emphasized the history of underrepresentation of marginalized groups in Hollywood. Until 1660, men would portray women in the entertainment industry, and white thespians were routinely cast in the roles of Black, Asian and Native American characters.
Only since the 2000s, Spencer and the Ruderman Family Foundation added, have LGBTQ people been portrayed by those with the same identity as their character.
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