Fellow actor Beau Bradfield said: “As an actor with facial scarring, I know how important it is to see people with visible differences represented on screen as real, complex people.<\/p>\n
“I want children growing up with visible differences to see characters who look like them being heroes, friends, parents and love interests \u2013 not just villains.”<\/p>\n
About 4.9 million people in the UK have a visible difference, the charity said.<\/p>\n
As part of its work to monitor visible difference representation, it has worked with the Creative Diversity Network to include visible difference as a category in its diversity data monitoring and reporting.<\/p>\n
Louise Wright, chief executive of Changing Faces, said: “For years we’ve asked the industry to think about the stories it tells about visible difference. <\/p>\n
“Now, for the first time, we have proof that those stories don’t stay on screen \u2013 they shape how people with visible difference are treated in real life.<\/p>\n
“Halloween is the moment this is impossible to ignore, which is why we’re asking industry, and the public, to help us change it.”<\/p>\n
Bailey Frances, from Cambridge-based Shakyra Dowling Casting, a member of the Casting Directors’ Association, said: “Getting it right matters.<\/p>\n
“Villains are often written with visible differences (eg facial scars) as shorthand, but asking whether a character could be interpreted differently, or whether that difference is essential to the story, leads to better, more truthful storytelling,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We regularly present actors who don’t match the description on the page but fit the character perfectly, and they’re often the ones who get the job. <\/p>\n
“Casting directors are in a unique position to widen the search and open up the conversation with writers and directors, challenging the initial casting briefs where needed.”<\/p>\n
Do you have a story suggestion for Northamptonshire? Contact us below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fellow actor Beau Bradfield said: “As an actor with facial scarring, I know how important it is to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":817454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-817453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/817454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}