The Peanut Butter Falcon & Disability

This piece was written for the Screen & Story Film Festival Blog and edited by Nathaniel Eker.

One of this year’s central categories at the Screen and Story Film Festival is “disabilities”. The festival has been on the lookout for films that centre disabled characters, stories, and most importantly, star disabled actors.

One film that does is The Peanut Butter Falcon (2019). It revolves around ‘a man who has Down Syndrome, [who] runs away to realize his wrestling dreams’. For a big WWE fan and seeing the focus on disability, the film was immediately intriguing. Within the first few minutes, it was delightful to note that the lead role (named Zak) is played by Zack Gottsagen, an actor with Down Syndrome. Seeing disabled characters played by disabled actors is unfortunately rare enough to be remarkable. The practice of ‘cripping up’ (a term which describes the practice of non-disabled actors playing disabled characters) is still common in contemporary filmmaking and can be seen in recent films such as The Theory of Everything (2014), The Upside (2017), and Sia’s unanimously panned directorial debut, Music (2021). What does Zack Gottsagen say about actors with disabilities? Gottsagen has spoken openly about the difficulties of being an actor with Down Syndrome, based on the hurdles that come with current studio practice and outdated societal attitudes. After watching interviews with writer and co-director, Tyler Nilson, it became apparent how underrepresented disabled people are in the film industry. According to the 2020-2021 season report from GLAAD, ‘the number of series regular characters with a disability…[is] 3.5 percent,’ which is a 12.9% increase from last year. For comparison, over 10% of the world’s population is disabled, which equates to roughly 650 million people.

The history behind ‘The Peanut Butter Falcon’ After meeting Gottsagen, Nilson was so impressed with his skills and ambitions that it led him and co-director Michael Schwartz to write a feature based on his lived experience as a disabled person. Despite having the screenplay written and the lead role cast, Nilson and Schwartz encountered numerous obstacles when trying to get the film made. In one interview, Nilson explains that initially the production was offered money on the condition that Gottsagen was replaced, and he was also told the actor was ‘unmarketable.’ Luckily, their determination paid off, and the production was picked up by Armory Films. In turn, it enjoyed well-deserved success, including 20 awards and 16 nominations.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is timeless in its content and its message. The actors craft a genuine connection, which makes for a story defined by raw, heartfelt performances. Like the trip that Zak embarks on, the film takes its audience on a journey of discovery and emotion. It has some gloriously comedic moments, whilst at other times it is honest and impactful. Most importantly, The Peanut Butter Falcon explores disability in a refreshingly authentic manner. The film industry needs more stories which platform disabled people and include them in narratives about their lives, rather than continue to marginalise them through exclusion and inaccurate representations.

The Peanut Butter Falcon is available to stream on Amazon Prime.