Director Amber Sealey: “It’s so important and crucial that we have all sets be accessible”
When Producer Peter Saraf’s daughter first read Sharon M. Draper’s “Out of My Mind,” she pitched it to him as a movie. Ten years later, “Out of My Mind” premiered at Sundance Film Festival and is now available on Disney+, reaching a new audience with a powerful message of inclusion and acceptance.
“Out of My Mind” is not just a coming-of-age film but an authentic and relatable story for the millions of children and young adults with disabilities. The situations that Melody faces are based on real-life experiences commonly encountered by disabled pre-teens and teenagers, as well as their parents and teachers.
“It’s quite uncanny really how much I relate to Melody,” Phoebe-Rae Taylor shared after the film’s Sundance premiere. “A couple of experiences in this movie, I’ve had the exact same. I think that really helps me to get into her character. I really relate to her a lot.”
Melody Brooks (Taylor), a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates. When a young educator notices her student’s untapped potential, Melody starts to participate in mainstream education, showing that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.
During an interview on the red carpet, Taylor shared that she hopes this film tells disabled children that “they do not need to fit into a stereotype that other people put them into.”
“There are some kids that can be really mean,” she continued. “And I just want to tell them [those who are bullied], they are not alone. They should not listen to these horrible people.”
Daniel Stiepleman, who wrote the adapted screenplay, previously worked as a teacher, both in a public-school setting and at universities. He admitted that he did not always know how to best support disabled students.
“I had many students who processed the world differently than the majority,” he shared in an interview on the red carpet prior to the Sundance premiere. “Sometimes I taught those students very well and sometimes I didn’t. That was something I had been wrestling with and carrying with me to a degree, even more than I realized. When I read Sharon’s book, I realized this was a conversation that I needed to have. The opportunity to explore that through the perspectives of lots of different people, stakeholders in education, was an opportunity I could not pass up.”
In order to adapt the screenplay appropriately, he spent years shadowing children with cerebral palsy, their parents, caregivers, teachers, and paraprofessionals. In addition, he worked with several consultants including Richard Ellenson, Thomas Ellenson, Lawrence Carter-Long, and the disability-led nonprofit organization Disability Belongs (formerly called RespectAbility).
In addition, writer Maysoon Zayid, who has cerebral palsy, assisted with the writing of Melody’s voiceover (voiced by Jennifer Aniston). “Amber and Daniel had set up such a beautiful film and then they brought me in,” she shared while on the Sundance red carpet. “It was such a privilege for them to notice how important it was to have an authentic disabled voice. It showed how much this story meant to them and that authenticity in casting, in writing, in everything, matters.”
And that authenticity is resonating with disabled audience members including Emily Kranking, an actress with cerebral palsy:
“As an actress with cerebral palsy who grew up with all things Disney, I wanted to be in their world so badly,” she said. “Because of disability being nonexistent in Hollywood, I thought it was just a pipedream. We need Phoebe-Rae Taylor so bad for the 12-year-old girls with cerebral palsy who watched Hannah Montana and High School Musical religiously. Phoebe is doing so many disabled girls, but particularly girls like me with cerebral palsy, with scrunched up wrists and speech disabilities, so proud by leading an actual Disney movie. She’s changing Hollywood and I cannot wait to see what’s next for her!”
Role Modeling the Importance of Advocating for Oneself
All too often, disabled children are shown as characters that are bullied or being left out. Zayid noted the importance of seeing Phoebe playing a kid in an “empowered role.”
Actress Courtney Taylor plays Dr. Katherine Ray, who first pushes for Melody to be included in mainstream classes. She was first drawn to the strong characters in the book and “to see characters in a way that we unfortunately don’t.”
“That’s what really drew me in,” she said. “I really loved the idea of Katherine being an advocate for Phoebe’s character.”
Dr. Katherine advocates for Melody, but more importantly, she teaches Melody that she is worthy of advocating for herself.
“A big part of this story is Melody learning she has power, and she has to exercise that power to demand her own rights,” Stiepleman added. “The movie is for everybody, but I especially think that for kids that need to demand the accommodations they are entitled to, it’s a really powerful call to step up.”
Following the Sundance premiere, Taylor shared that this experience even helped her become a better self-advocate. “I felt more confident in myself and in my disability,” she shared.
Ensuring an Accessible Set
Director Amber Sealey prioritized accessibility on set for every member of the cast and crew, noting that it did not cost more money to ensure access for all.
“On a set we are often concerned with safety and trying to be green (environmental), but it’s very rare that we make an entire set accessible for everyone,” she said in an interview on the red carpet. “This was the first time I had been on a production where this was a concern.”
Sealy also pledged to ensure accessible sets for future films and explained the impact of doing so.
“We had an amazing accessibility team, and they were seamlessly integrated into the crew. We couldn’t have done it without them. At the same time, it was so easy to have them. I plan on every set going forward to be completely accessible. I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be. It’s so important and crucial that we have all sets be accessible, because we have people coming out of the cast and crew saying I have a disability that wouldn’t have normally felt comfortable to speak about their disability. I just look toward a future where we all can be, yeah, I have ADHD, I have OCD, and I have cerebral palsy, whatever, and just embrace it all.”
Rosemarie DeWitt, who plays Melody’s mother Diane Brooks, said this movie was her first time working on a fully accessible set and noted that she learned “about things like access” during the film’s production.
“I started walking through Toronto and saying no ramp, no ramp, we couldn’t eat there, we can’t go here,” she said in an interview on the red carpet. “It really opens up your eyes to looking at the world in a way that you wouldn’t.”
“We can do anything in movies,” she added. “It just takes thoughtfulness and time and actually learning form people that are maybe not already in the room and bringing in people you haven’t met yet. It builds a culture that it so much better than the one that already exists.”
Looking Toward the Future
Stiepleman said that “Out of My Mind” is a “steppingstone” toward inclusivity because “Melody really is a real protagonist who makes choices that drive the story forward.” However, he notes that this film is “still very much a story about disability.”
“The last step we need to take is the movie about a character who has a disability but it’s not about the disability,” he continued. “I hope we get to make the sequel, because that’s very much what that one is. But this is an important steppingstone that gets us there and I’m proud to be part of it.”
Speaking after the Sundance premiere, Sealey noted that disabled people “may not always feel welcome in Hollywood.” She emphasized that disabled creatives “could be actors or director or writers.”
“Out of My Mind” shows that by including disabled writers, consultants, and actors, the representation can resonate with both disabled and nondisabled audiences. Looking toward future projects, Stiepleman and Sealey both paint an ideal world where films are authentically inclusive, and disabled creatives have equal opportunities to work.
“Out of My Mind” is now streaming on Disney+.
