NY Times and Kelli O'Hara

(My apologies if this has been posted already; I did search for a thread.)

Yesterday's NY Times had an article called "Characters Who Are More Than the Sum of Their Tics." It was about characters in PILLOWMAN, GLASS MENAGERIE and LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.

Kelli O’Hara said of Clara, "She's a very fictional person already. From all the studying I've done, a person who suffered the trauma she did would likely be overweight, might drool or say inappropriate things like, 'Let me get in your underwear.' I wanted to find something believable but not repellent, so she could be loved. So I couldn't really use any developmentally challenged people as models, and as a result, she at first seemed totally normal."

She also said, "I worry when some emotionally disabled people come to the show. We're saying that you can have love, that you can possibly have a beautiful life, even though you might actually be limited and annoying. I'm afraid they'll feel we're lying to them."

Did she just say that developmentally challenged people are repellent, annoying and can’t be loved?!?

Characters Who Are More Than the Sum of Their Tics

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I think she's saying that she feels bad that they're not showing a TRUE representation that someone with her affliction would suffer because it was too unattractive. That perhaps, the comment she made was derived from what she was told in terms of "NORMALLY someone like this would drool, etc. but that's just annoying and disgusting so we're not gonna go that far into the truth with this affliction" kinda thing.

I dunno, I don't think she was trying to be insulting at all. I haven't read my ny times from yesterday yet, gonna go do that now :)

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I'm not necessarily saying that I agree wholeheartedly with what Ms. O'Hara said, but I think that anyone reading the article needs to stop for a second and think about what she said before harshly judging her words. Honestly ask yourself the following question: "When you think of a mentally challenged person, how does said person look? Talk? Act?" You would probably go right to the kind of character that Michael Stuhlbarg is playing in The Pillowman.

I have experienced mentally challenged people first hand, within my own family, and I can say that the portrayal that Ms. O'Hara is offering is kind, to say the least.