The cloak of incompetence : representations of people with intellectual disability in film

Abstract

At the half-hour mark of Tropic Thunder, Robert Downey Jr’s character Kirk Lazarus teaches Ben Stiller’s Tugg Speedman a lesson about Hollywood and the Oscars. Lazarus and Speedman, both actors, discuss Speedman’s interpre- tation of a person with intellectual disability in one of his films: Simple Jack. Lazarus argues that Hollywood does not like portrayals of people with intellectual disability that are too realistic. Taking this approach leads to actors going home “empty-handed” on Oscar night, he tells Speedman. In his argument, the key part of which is reproduced below, Lazarus refers to four films: Forrest Gump, Rain Man, Being There, and I am Sam. The portrayals of people with intellectual disability and the depiction of their lives in these films, and to a lesser extent in Tropic Thunder itself, are the focus of this article.