A Different Man’s Adam Pearson Calls Out Hollywood’s Treatment of Disabilities on Screen

“I think it’s lazy writing,” the 39-year-old British actor says. “Why are non-disabled people writing about disability without consultation?”

The 39-year-old British actor spoke to Variety at the Sundance Film Festival for his film A Different Man, which he stars alongside Sebastian Stan and Renate Rein.

Pearson has neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic condition that causes the skin to develop thousands of thick, non-cancerous tumors; in the film Stan plays a character with the same condition.

“Normally there are three kinds of roles or tropes or stereotypes, whatever vernacular one wants to use,” Pearson told the outlet.

“There’s either the villain – that because I have a disfigurement, I want to kill Batman or James Bond. Then there’s the victim – the ‘woe is me,’ small violin,” he continued. “And then there’s the hero – that because I have a disfigurement but do regular dude stuff, whatever regular dude stuff is, I’m somehow braver than the average guy.”

Calling those tropes “lazy writing,” he then asked, “Why are non-disabled people writing about disability without consultation? When that happens, the end result … you might get it right once, but 9 times out 10 it’s going to be very inauthentic and inaccurate.”

The A24 film tells the story of a man with neurofibromatosis who fakes his death and undergoes facial reconstruction surgery … only to audition for a stage play based on his life and see the role go to an actor with the condition, played by Pearson.