Acting Role Where Anita Hollander Offered to Lose Her Leg in the Second Act (Part6) :
Anita Hollander: There are actual disabled roles that I was not cast in. I was auditioned for it and they went for a non-disabled actor for the role even though they had the authentic, accurate, person (actress) in the room. So it has not always worked in my favor but when it has, I call it an asset. I have always felt this way - that what makes me unique is an asset even if I don't get other jobs. In fact, on my resume are far more roles that are not considered disabled at all. Blanche, in Brighton Beach Memoirs. Golde. Emma Goldman. All these roles that I've done, nobody ever considers them disabled. They weren't disabled. If they're historical roles, they weren't disabled. Even in the stories or if it's fictional roles - not disabled.
However, it doesn't hurt to have a person in that role because it's not specific, one way or the other. And I have a great artificial leg and I've tapped-danced in Nunsense and all of the Nunsense musicals. And been goofy and done choreography and really basically passed as a two-legged persons - as a non- disabled person.
Like in Damn Yankees, [when I was] playing Meg, the wife, the cast would often say to me, "We always forget that you have one leg because you zip on to that stage and zip back off again."
Susan Dansby: Well, and I think that the other way that being in a minority becomes an asset is that you go in knowing, "Okay, there may be some odds against me here."
Anita Hollander: Right.
Susan Dansby: Exactly, it puts you in such a head set that you know you have to be that much better in order to impress.
Anita Hollander: This is very true, Susan. That's probably the most valuable thing - that is so true. You, many times, have to prove to them that you are the better actor than the one that walked in who happened to have two legs.
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