Octavia Spencer: Cast More Actors with Disabilities

Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer. (AP)
Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer. (AP)
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Octavia Spencer: Cast More Actors with Disabilities

Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer. (AP)
Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer. (AP)

Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer says Hollywood needs to do better casting people with disabilities.

The star of "The Help" and "Hidden Figures" is part of a new video campaign timed with the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this month.

"Casting able-bodied actors in roles for characters with disabilities is offensive, unjust, and deprives an entire community of people from opportunities," she says in the nearly three-minute clip.

Spencer argues that the industry needs to recognize that "nothing can replace lived experience and authentic representation." She also notes how the entertainment industry has been notoriously slow at embracing diversity.

"It’s only been a few decades since white actors would portray Black, Asian and even Native American characters on screen," Spencer says. "There is no reason that we should continue to repeat the same mistakes of the past. Together, we should and can do better."

The campaign was launched by the Ruderman Family Foundation, a Boston-based organization that advocates for people with disabilities.

The foundation earlier this year issued an open letter to the entertainment industry making a similar plea that was signed by George Clooney, Joaquin Phoenix, Ed Norton, Bryan Cranston, Mark Ruffalo, Glenn Close, Eva Longoria and other prominent names in Hollywood.



Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet, French Cinema Power Couple, Call It Quits

Guillaume Canet, left, and Marion Cotillard appear at the premiere of "Before the Flood" ('Avant Le Deluge') in Paris on Oct. 17, 2016. (AP)
Guillaume Canet, left, and Marion Cotillard appear at the premiere of "Before the Flood" ('Avant Le Deluge') in Paris on Oct. 17, 2016. (AP)
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Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet, French Cinema Power Couple, Call It Quits

Guillaume Canet, left, and Marion Cotillard appear at the premiere of "Before the Flood" ('Avant Le Deluge') in Paris on Oct. 17, 2016. (AP)
Guillaume Canet, left, and Marion Cotillard appear at the premiere of "Before the Flood" ('Avant Le Deluge') in Paris on Oct. 17, 2016. (AP)

Oscar winner Marion Cotillard and actor-director Guillaume Canet announced their separation Friday after 18 years and two children together, breaking up a power relationship of French cinema.

Cotillard won an Academy Award in 2008 for her performance as the legendary French singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose" and is one of France's best-known stars internationally. She starred with Brad Pitt in the World War II romantic thriller "Allied" and Leonardo DiCaprio in "Inception."

Canet has acting, directing and screenplay credits and played in "The Beach" with DiCaprio.

The 49-year-old Cotillard and 52-year-old Canet starred together in the French-Belgian film "Love Me If You Dare" in 2003, a breakthrough box-office hit in France for her.

They began dating in 2007. They announced their separation in a statement to the Agence France-Presse news agency that said they made the split public "to avoid all speculation, rumors and risky interpretations."

It did not give a reason but said they were separating by "common accord" and with "mutual goodwill."

France-based agents for Cotillard and Canet did not respond to emails from The Associated Press.