The Disney+ original movie Out of My Mind, based on the novel of the same name by Sharon M. Draper, follows preteen Melody Brooks (Phoebe-Rae Taylor), a girl with cerebral palsy. Melody has a sharp mind, but due to her being non-verbal and using a wheelchair, she is not given the same academic opportunities as her classmates. However, when an educator notices Melody’s untapped potential, she encourages her to participate in mainstream education, of which she has much to experience.
In the Draper novel, Melody is unable to speak. However, for the screen, director Amber Sealey cast Taylor (who has cerebral palsy and can vocalize) alongside Jennifer Aniston, who plays Melody’s inner voice and acts as the film narrator. Sealey hopes to show audiences that viewers can approach people with disabilities, even if it means that the person might respond differently.
Here, Sealey and Taylor talk to Deadline about the importance of disability representation in the media and beyond.
DEADLINE: How did you go about casting Phoebe-Rae? What made her the perfect choice to play Melody?
AMBER SEALEY: I mean, everything makes her right for the role of Melody. I fell in love with Phoebe immediately when I first saw her video. We had wonderful casting directors. Paul Schnee [casting director] helped us really look globally. So, we went beyond agencies and management companies. We were reaching out to CP [cerebral palsy] organizations and people we knew [that had] CP saying, “Do you know anybody?” So, we went very far and wide. It was a really personal outreach. Phoebe had never acted before, but she had signed up with a modeling agency in the U.K., so we saw her video, and I was just immediately like, “Oh my God. I’m in love with this girl, and I want her to do it.” So, Phoebe and I Zoomed for a number of months, but I knew immediately that she was the right one.
DEADLINE: Phoebe, do you remember your initial response to being found out you’d been cast?
PHOEBE-RAE TAYLOR: I had just turned 13. And I remember I never really realized what I was getting myself into until I actually got told I was going to be Melody. And I remember being in total shock, and I didn’t know what to say because I never been in this kind of position ever.
SEALEY: I have a video of when I told her that she got the part, and her parents were with her, and we all cried. It was a special moment.
DEADLINE: Do you remember when you first watched the film with your family?
TAYLOR: I remember the first time I watched it was when Amber actually came over to England, where I live. And she came to my house, and we watched it. And I remember after I watched it, I was in a weird mindset. I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing. I had no words for what I just watched. I obviously had high expectations for this film, but not all of that. It was even higher than what I expected. It was the most weird but amazing experience I’ve ever had.
DEADLINE: Amber, what was something important to you to get across in making this film?
SEALEY: So many things. It was really important to me that the character of Melody be just representative of that one character, that one person. We were not trying to speak for all children with CP, all people with CP, all people with disabilities. One person with a disability is just that, one person with a disability, and that person has their own personality and hopes and dreams. So, it was really important to me that the character Melody be a very specific 12-year-old girl who just happens to have cerebral palsy but also has crushes and wants friendships and wants to do well in school and all these areas.
And I think it was that very specificity that hopefully made it more universal. So that was important. Authenticity was really important. We had so many wonderful CP consultants throughout the process that helped us tremendously. I can’t even count the number of ways that they helped us make it more authentic and, including Phoebe herself. We stole from her real life, for example, her true love for Jennifer Aniston became the inner voice in the film. So, it was really a labor of love for so many people where we stole a lot of elements from their lives.
DEADLINE: Phoebe, when did you find out about Jennifer Aniston being your inner voice and narrator in the film?
TAYLOR: I found out halfway through shooting the film if I remember correctly. I was in my apartment in Canada, and my mom screamed, and I went into the kitchen and was like, “What? What?” And she told me, and I remember uncontrollably sobbing for the whole night, and I remember I went, “What? This isn’t real.” I thought my mom was joking with me, but I then thought, “What is my life? Could this experience get any better than it did?” It was amazing.
DEADLINE: What do you have in common with Melody? How did you relate to her character?
TAYLOR: I relate to Melody in so many ways, in really specific ways, in scenes in the film, and when I first read the script, I would come across these scenes and go, “Oh my God. I’ve had this exact situation happen to me.” Like the scene where someone says something not very nice to her, I’ve had those exact words said to me.
DEADLINE: What do you both hope that audiences get out of this film?
TAYLOR: I think there are so many messages that need to be heard, but one of the main ones for me is just don’t judge. As easy and simple as that. Don’t be so arrogant and small-minded to look at someone and immediately think you know them. That is really not the case, and it happens too much. It’s happened too much to me and other people, and I just think getting to know someone before you judge them is important because people with disabilities are so much more than their appearance or how they sound. They are so more important than what they look like, and I think people need to realize that.
SEALEY: Phoebe says it so perfectly. 30% of the United States identifies as having a disability. Something like two to 3% of protagonists in film and television are protagonists with disabilities. The percentage is even smaller in terms of those roles being played by actors with disabilities. So, disabilities are the largest minority, and it’s a minority that anybody could become a member of at any point in their life. And so, I hope that this movie, in some small way, encourages people to stop othering individuals with disabilities.
People with disabilities are, exactly as Phoebe says, people. And I hope the movie helps people start to think about taking the time to stop and listen. That if somebody communicates differently than you do, maybe they don’t use their voice, maybe they use AAC, or they use their hands to communicate, but the onus should be on us to stop and listen and take the time to actually hear what it is that that person has to say. Don’t be so judgmental and not think about a person with a disability as being so entirely different from you if your body moves differently or they speak differently or communicate differently. Just go up and say hi. Don’t be so afraid.
[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]
The post ‘Out Of My Mind’ Star Phoebe-Rae Taylor & Director Amber Sealey On Championing And Normalizing Disability Stories; “People With Disabilities Are So Much More Than Their Appearance” appeared first on Deadline.
