Different features

Can "A Different Man" make a difference in perceptions of differences?

The movie A Different Man has made a bit of a splash at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the New Directors/New Films Festival. The lead character, an actor named Edward, has a genetic condition—neurofibromatosis—that causes spinal, brain, and other neurological abnormalities but is especially marked by growth of disfiguring tumors on his head and face.

In the movie, Edward receives a transformative medical therapy (there actually are such) that gives him movie-star good looks, but he has to deal with the consequences of the change. On US National Public Radio’s Saturday Edition for 28 September 2024, host Scott Simon explains the situation

SIMON: Edward has a genetic condition in which tumors grow below his skin. He submits himself to an experimental medical procedure that gives him a new face that's like, well, a movie star's. His new face upends his life but doesn't make Edward happy.

Here’s a trailer for the movie:

Now, some readers may wonder, “Why is that old fool writing about this movie. It’s not about disability or education.” Those readers would be right in that assessment. The movie isn’t about special education…but it is about difference. That’s something that lots of people with disabilities experience. They wonder about their difference…they wonder about how others perceive them (don’t most of us?)…they wonder what their lives might be like if they could have some transformative therapy.

So, I think seeing this movie may bring greater understanding of that experience for we special educators (teachers, researchers, administrators, therapists, etc. …psychologists). What is more, it may provide an entry for parents of kids with disabilities to talk with others about…well…simply treating kids with disabilities as people.

As I‘ve noted previously, having that discussion is really important to me. I want people to understand that our kids are really just kids. They have kid joys and sorrows. They may have struggles with some tasks, but they can do others just fine. They get up in the morning, have breakfast, brush their teeth, go to school, learn stuff—sure, they may need help with some of those kiddie actions. But, they’re just growing from little to adult humans.

This movie may have special resonance for some readers, because I think there’s a hint of commentary about ableism to it. Let me return to Scott Simon’s interview. Mr. Simon asked that one of the actors, Adam Pearson, explain the disorder.

PEARSON: I have a genetic condition called Type 1 Neurofibromatosis. So it affects the 17th chromosome in the human genome. And it has a prevalency rating of 1 in every 2,300 births, which puts it just within the benchmarks for being classified as rare. And I'm very much at the extreme end of the severity spectrum. On a 1 to 10 on the spinal tap of the condition, I've turned it all the way up to 11. And it's characterized by the growth of noncancerous tumors on nerve endings, and most of mine are on my face and upper torso.

And a few beats later, Mr. Simon then asked,

SIMON: If, indeed, there were an operation that could change your appearance, would you be interested?

PEARSON: No. Not at all. Not at all. I think we all need to learn to live the lives we've got and not mourn the ones we don't. Everyone tends to think of how hard it is to go from being nondisabled to disabled and that sort of shock to the system. And no one seems to be willing to think about how hard it is to do it the other way around - to go from living in one sort of set of circumstances to a completely different set. And I guess that's one of the things, of many, that this film is looking to explore - the idea of, is who we are on the outside who we are on the inside?

As many readers may realize, I’m not particularly enamored of the inside-outside dichotomy, but I am really happy that this film features actors with disabilities (Okay, deformities) and that they have a chance to tell us their own personal perspectives in interviews like the one Mr. Simon conducted.

Some advocates for the neurodivergence view of, say, autism or ADHD, may find the perspective of Mr. Pearson quite compelling: “You know…It’s OK to be different. Don’t try to change me.!”

I look forward to seeing this film, when it is released in the fall of 2024 in the US and GB. I hope anyone who does see it will come back and drop a comment-review here.

Read more about the movie at IMDB, Wikipedia, and wherever a search may take you as well as Mr. Simon’s wonderful interview. Also, by the way, see historical discussions of Joseph Carey Merrick, who was known as “the Elephant Man.” I do not know if he had neurofibromatosis, and it would warrant a good investigation.