The Disney+ original movie Out of My Mind, based on the book by Sharon M. Draper, is about a girl with cerebral palsy who cannot speak. In putting Melody Brooks (Phoebe-Rae Taylor) on screen, director Amber Sealey hopes to show viewers they can talk to people with disabilities, even if that disability means the person will respond in a different way.
“People always ask how to make other people comfortable with disability,” Sealey said. “Part of it is just normalize it.”
Taylor has cerebral palsy and can vocalize. In the film, Melody communicates by pointing to symbols on a board representing her feelings or requests, and later uses an electronic speech device. Sealey said she has spoken with children after screenings of the film and seen the positive impact.
“When they ask questions, they ask, ‘There’s a kid in my class who has cerebral palsy. What do I do? How do I go up to him?’” Sealey said. “I’m proud of that kid for asking that question. My response is, ‘Go say hi.’ I hope it makes more people say hi to other people who are different from them.”
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In the film, Dr. Katherine Ray (Courtney Taylor) voices the concept of presumed competence, a term Sealey discovered in her research. She hopes it gives viewers a positive way of thinking about disability.
“When you see somebody whose body moves differently than yours or or communicates differently from you, maybe doesn’t speak with their mouth or with words, presume that they’re a competent human being,” Sealey said. “Presume that they have a personality and an inner life.”
Kirby plays Melody’s father. He encourages Melody to try mainstream sixth grade, against the wishes of his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt) who feels she should remain in special education. Kirby, who does not have kids of his own, said he was touched by the Brooks family’s tenacity.
“It touches on what it is to be in a family and to have a fight and how precious it can be,” Kirby said. “My hope for what people take away from it is that the fight continues. This is a constant forge.”
Out of My Mind is Taylor’s first film. It was important to Sealey to cast someone with cerebral palsy. She worked with cerebral palsy consultants and auditioned actors from around the world before finding Taylor through an agency in England.
Zooming with Taylor led to Jennifer Aniston narrating the film as Melody’s inner voice. Sealey saw that Taylor had a purple door with a yellow frame in her room, like Monica and Rachel’s apartment on Friends. It turned out Taylor is even named after Lisa Kudrow’s character, Phoebe.
“There are six friends, we’ll start with our top pick, which was Jen,” Sealey said. “If she says no, we’ll go through the rest of them. Jen very happily said yes right away.”
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Sealey said there is still much work to be done for disability representation in Hollywood. She cited the Inevitable Foundation’s emphasis on the D part of DEI, and worried that attacks on DEI initiatives mean their work will become even harder.
“About 30% of the American public identifies as having a disability,” Sealey said. “In Hollywood, people with disabilities don’t often see themselves represented up on screen. They don’t see themselves behind the camera. So I think historically, Hollywood has not been a very welcoming place for people who identify as having a disability.”
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