Like most of us, Kelli McNeil-Yellen didn’t think much about physical disability until it touched her own life. But after a relative suffered a life-altering injury, the L.A.-based screenwriter began to see things in a new light.
“I suddenly noticed the world was completely inaccessible to them. I also started to notice portrayals in film and television were all narratives that basically said it was better to be dead than to live with a disability,” she says. “I thought, ‘We can do better than that.’”
So McNeil-Yellen started work on what would become the feature film Daruma in 2007. Premiering last fall, the indie road-trip dramedy follows a pair of bitter and cantankerous friends, Patrick (Tobias Forrest) and Robert (John W. Lawson) — who happen to be a wheelchair user and a double amputee — as they set out across the country to reunite Patrick’s newly discovered four-year-old daughter with her maternal grandparents.
“I wanted to tell a story about a person with a disability overcoming emotional hurdles versus a physical hurdle,” McNeil-Yellen says. “Most of the time when you see movies like this, it's an able-bodied person who gets injured, and the rest of the movie is about how inspirational they are to adapt and overcome it.”
Daruma side steps these tired tropes in favor of something closer to our messy human experience. For co-lead Forrest, a seasoned character actor whose resume includes bit parts on TV shows like How to Get Away with Murder and Law & Order, landing his first major role in a feature film prizing a more honest depiction of his life was a breath of fresh air.
“It could have been like a number of terrible stories that try to emotionally manipulate people by using disability as a tool,” Forrest says. “This does the exact opposite: It throws that tool out, and it uses a bunch of other realistic elements to tell this story — that’s a beautiful thing.”
‘They want to see themselves’
Director Alexander Yellen says this emphasis on authenticity, a “red line” for his spouse and screenwriter McNeil-Yellen, wasn’t just about doing right by their actors living with disabilities. It was about reaching as many people as possible in the process.
“You could have told this exact same story with people from any background. It's something that will be familiar and accessible to any audience,” he says. “We've had people with zero disability experience talk about how effective the movie is, and how 20 minutes in they stopped noticing the disability because it's just about two people they can relate to.”
More than a quarter of adults in the United States live with a physical or mental disability, but a recent Nielsen study found that just about 4.2% of surveyed films and TV shows portray that experience in a significant way. Of those depictions, the vast majority are played by so-called “able-bodied” performers.
“Almost everyone else knows somebody with a disability. It's a huge spending power, and they want to see themselves,” Forrest says. “But we're stuck with the stereotypes and archetypes of people with disabilities as victims or villains, or someone that will die in the end. Even if this movie is a sleeper that takes its time to get out there, hopefully it will reach people.”
‘Let’s run with it’
Forrest suffered a C5 spinal cord injury nearly three decades ago at age 22, damaging the fifth cervical vertebra in his neck while diving off a waterfall in the Grand Canyon. After “a little drowning and a little dying,” all four of his limbs were paralyzed for life.
So when his longtime friend, neighbor and fellow actor John W. Lawson encouraged Forrest to audition opposite himself for the role of Patrick, originally written for a person with use of their arms, the quadriplegic performer was hesitant. But Lawson wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I said, ‘They're gonna want me to do all this stuff I can't do.’ John said, ‘Well, do it and let them decide,’” Forrest recalls. “I said, ‘I don't even know the words.’ He's like, ‘I'll tape it to my forehead. Just do the damn audition.’”
Forrest did the damn audition. Landing the role alongside Lawson, his confidence grew but remained colored by a nagging doubt. Portraying a character with comparatively more physical mobility, the situation was a far cry from the Hollywood standard of “spending tons of money to digitally disable someone or green screen their arms off.”
The film doesn’t show Patrick getting in and out of bed, for example — which Forrest does in real life with the help of a caretaker. But as Yellen told him: “You never see Superman go to the bathroom.”
“‘This is your story and your dream, and it's my dream to star in a movie, but I don't want to take your opportunity away because of my physical limitations,’” Forrest remembers telling the team after his first callback. “They said, ‘We don't care about that. We think you emotionally can do what the character needs, and we'll figure all the other stuff out.’ They convinced me, and I was like, ‘Alright, let's run with it.’ Pun intended.”
They ran all the way to a sold-out premiere at the historic Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, where Daruma made its debut last November. With the help of an accessibility coordinator, the event accommodated roughly 30 wheelchair users and included audio-visual descriptions and captions for people with low vision and hearing.
Viewers can expect a similar setup when the film comes to the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder for a March 13 screening, with Forrest in attendance for a post-movie Q&A. The team behind Daruma hopes it’s not the last discussion the film will spark.
“I think the reason most artists became artists is because they felt they had something to say,” Yellen says. “It's not that often you get to create art that contributes to the conversation in a meaningful way, and maybe makes the world just a little bit better.”
ON SCREEN: Daruma screening with Tobias Forrest. 7 p.m. Thursday, March 13, Dairy Arts Center, 2590 Walnut St, Boulder. $12