Do YOU Think Asperger's Hasn't Been Depicted Well On Film?

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There are a wealth of characters on TV shows and films who have Asperger's but in my opinion they only seem to be the majorly eccentric type. I have never actually seen a character who appears normal on the outside but is only wearing a mask to conceal their condition. Just curious to know if people think it has been depicted accurately?

The core issue is this: each film depiction has presented the AS character as if the symptoms represented everything relevant to the personhood of that person. This suggestion that a person on the AS spectrum is no more than his or her "condition" is dehumanising. No person can be defined solely by their neurology or features of it, and it is insulting to do so to any human being. However film makers and producers of media programmes don't seem to be able to get this concept. They have some kind of cognitive malfunction perhaps, they can't apply theory of mind to AS people and their feelings.

Examples of "being more than a condition" when depicting NT people who don't have normative characteristics are a useful comparison here (remember Ironside? He was depicted as much more than his condition!). Al Pacino in "Scent of Woman" - he was depicted as having a whole life and history separate from visual impairment. However their characters were NT characters, so they are allowed to be shown as participants in the fully human realm, despite their non-normative characteristics.

There is enormous discrimination against AS people and the films add to it and reinforce it. We need more AS film makers of both sexes urgently..

The very act of portraying Aspergers in a character on film is fallacious. Because Asperger's manifests itself in so many forms, in so many people, with so many different personalities, it would be folly to attempt to portray it accurately through a single individual.

Well outside of the fact she lacked empathy and had no problem killing people or at the very least letting them die, I thought Lisbeth Salander was depicted quite well as possibly having aspergers in the original Swedish version of the Millennium series. I don't connect her psychopathic tendencies and lack of empathy to her possibly having aspergers. You have to look at the whole character and giving her life and experiences, I contributed her darker side to having dealt with so much abuse. However in addition to that, I see a lot of aspergers symptoms from her outside of her other mental problems (Yeah I know autism is not a mental illness but you know what I am saying hopefully).

I was just thinking this the other day. There's good movies that have Aspie characters, but they're usually comedies. I would love to see an existential piece that maybe uses a hint of surrealism to convey what an Aspie might feel or what we would be thinking in a given situation. To make a good movie would be ambitious, but I definitely think in the right hands, a really good movie could come of it.

We're obviously interesting subjects, because if we weren't, we wouldn't be showing up at all in media. So why wouldn't an authentic character piece be any less interesting?

Film or TV are visual mediums and showing what is going on inside a character is difficult. They could cut to a person stimming in thier own room or collapsing when they get home but most viewers would probably not understand what they are seeing. How do you show a person spending hours persuing a special interest?

I haven't seen many characters with Asperger's or Autism. The only one that really stands out is Doc Martin. And I really don't think that the portrayal is realistic, because he would have never got through medical school with such a horrible attitude. It's very fictional.

You know how it works: if you don’t like the way films with autistic characters are made, better make some yourself, together with people sharing your ideas.

The character, Dr. Simon Reid, on "Criminal Minds" has been depicted well. It was mention somewhere, in an interview with the actor or else on an episode, that Dr. Reid has Asperger's. One of my favorite shows.

In the UK we had a short TV series on recently called "The A Word". It was quite enjoyable and can be really useful for giving non-autistic people an idea of what it is. I initially thought the portrayal was poor, but only because the child's case of autism was different to that of my own. However, I know that the spectrum is vast, and that those of us with autism can have very different cases and severities of it.

There's quite a few characters throughout film and tv that are nuanced, sympathetic, and read as autistic---who are never explicitly stated as such, and thus it doesn't really feel like they're ''ours.'' Especially if the show is ableist and dismissive towards neurodivergence and disability in other ways, like T. Brennan on Bones.