Millicent Simmonds Quotes

It's really important to remember that disability is diversity, and that disabled actors and disabilities are something that is hugely under-represented in film.

Disability is as visual as race. If a wheelchair user can't play Beyonce, then Beyonce can't play a wheelchair user.

Growing up, I never thought about becoming an actress because I never saw deaf people in TV or movies. I didn't think it was possible.

People with disabilities are simply part of diverse communities in the U.S.

For lots of us, disabled people are not our teachers or our doctors or our manicurists. We're not real people. We are there to inspire.

I use the term 'disabled people' quite deliberately, because I subscribe to what's called the social model of disability, which tells us that we are more disabled by the society that we live in than by our bodies and our diagnoses.

[Asked if she campaigned:] No indeed ... I just go along ... and sit on the platform to show that I don't have a club foot.

I just want different narratives for people of color, especially women of color. I just want something that's different. I don't want us to be put in a box. I want it to be kind of a redefinition of who were are. If I can even achieve that in a tiny way, I'll be good. I'll be good.

I think as more women are in positions of power, more people of color are in positions of power, the stories become more inclusive; the casts become more inclusive.

I would love to switch on my TV and see a disabled person talking about something they are genuinely interested in or acting out a part that doesn't just focus on their impairment.

I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me. You can't possibly speak for a diverse group of people. I don't know what it's like to be an arm amputee, or have even one flesh-and-bone leg, or to have cerebral palsy.

From casting to hiring to awards races like the Emmys, taking active steps toward inclusion will make for richer stories, a stronger democracy, and a better world.

We need to band together in solidarity. There's so many portions of our community that are under-represented. You rarely see disabled actors on movie posters or black men or Latino guys.

We have to support everyone so their stories don't get 'invisibilized.' We don't necessarily have to repopulate the next Marvel movie with people of color, but it's just about saying 'We have hearts, we have souls, we have minds, we have faults, we have flaws, and we're super-freaking interesting.'

I think one in five Americans has a disability of some sort. That's 20% of the population, and yet we rarely ever see people with disabilities on-screen, and their stories and their resilience and their zest for life and their humor and their humanity.

I hope that upon this scorched earth we have planted the seeds of ideas that will bear the fruit of more diverse and inclusive stories that include people of color in the LGBT community.

Diversity has definitely been increasing, but still we have the issue of inclusion, and that is why I am so grateful about playing the role of Nagini in the 'Fantastic Beasts' franchise.

I feel like if Hollywood can stretch for inclusion and intersectionality, and being intentional with its intersectionality, that that can ripple out past Hollywood into whatever industry and kind of affect society as a whole.

I'm seeing more and more people of color do what I do as showrunners, and that's so great. I would love to get to the point where we don't have to talk about it anymore.

Helping to open up the conversation about inclusion and diversity in casting has been a dream come true.

I think we really do need deaf people out there writing their own shows.

There is still so much acceptance, representation and visibility needed for trans women of color and gender non-conforming people of color.

Latinos, Asians, African-Americans, women - we're all trying to find our place in this world of cinema and television and theater. And the great thing with comedy is that most of the time, you could be orange. It doesn't matter, as long you're funny.

I don't generally talk about medical terms when I discuss my position as a disabled person. I take a social rather than medical approach to disability, and so long Latin names for congenital conditions are not relevant.

For me, I want to see diversity in storytelling sources because we live in a very diverse society, and the stories are for the whole society. That's really important. For me, as a female filmmaker, when I was out on the festival circuit on 2006, I felt like such a freaking anomaly - an oddity.