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Fictional autistic characters: TV, movies, books
How about a dedicated thread that bridges the conversation in another thread about characters in books with autism & adds in characters from TV and movies too?
Hilary Swank’s journalist lead character Eileen in the TV show Alaska Daily (ABC& Hulu) is so obviously autistic. That made me realize she’s been cast in autistic-seeming roles in the past, most memorable being the astronaut lead in Away on Netflix. (Both are excellent, BTW.)
That lead me to other women who have spoken to my soul in the right interesting quirky way.
Téa Leoni in Madame Secretary in particular. Her staff, all autistic, right?
Lily Tomlin’s Frankie Bernstein in Grace&Frankie (a great relationship between neurotypical and neurodiverse women) lead me to think of Lisa Kudrow’s guest appearance character there and then, well, Pheobe Buffay! Friends was another complex example of neurotypical and neurodiverse women being friends.
Sonequa Martin-Green, who plays Michael Burnham on Star Trek Discovery masks really well, yet I have no doubt. On that show Mary Wiseman who plays Sylvia Tilly has acknowledged, I hear, that the character clearly is autistic.
[I feel compelled to say until last year I hadn’t watched much TV or movies. Now that I’m working on learning to chill the f*ck out and health prevents me from always being my old super-productive-warrior, I’m finding great storytelling online.]
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21 Replies
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My favourite totally autistic female character in literature is Remedios from One Hundred Years of Solitude. The favourite because she refuses to mask.
One of the oldest ones is probably Cassandra from The Illyad. Any thoughts on Cassandra, autistic or not?
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When it comes to conventional storytelling arcs, I don’t think a woman would be able to be a lead character without being autistic. The arc of a story is necessarily male. The woman stays focused on a single goal/topic/issue and there is resolution. Whereas a nuerotypical women would not be so focused as to be able to follow an arc through a story. It’s not how neurotypical women live their lives.
The story arc is very male. So only women who function like men can lead a story arc. Think of even Alice in Wonderland. A neurotypical girl would have bailed early on in the story. And would not have taken joy in the adventure.
Also, there’s an issue in children’s picture books that before the 1990s there are very few girls at all, and when there are girls, they are tomboys.
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Cassandra is one of my favorite examples. She can clearly see the pattern as it will play out and no one will listen.
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Yes! That’s precisely why I identified with the character long before i heard of autism. But now I wonder how much of her frustrating situation was down to other people not listening, and how much down to her bad communications skills 🙂
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I hypothesize both. It doesn’t matter how well you communicate if the other person isn’t willing/able to listen. I think that was part of the curse, she knew they wouldn’t/couldn’t listen and still felt compelled to tell them anyway.
Also Pandora. The kiddo asked why she was given the box AND curiosity. And why hope was in the box with all the other bad stuff.
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Pandora, of course! My childhood theory about hope in the box was that it must be bad too: where there is hope there is also potential for hopelesness. And if there is no hope there is only neutral disposition, so you can’t ever end up disappointed. Seems quite a zen conclusion, but more likely it was a defence mechanism for me at the time, because life seemed quite hopeless.
Ancient mythology was the earliest special interest of mine that I’m aware of. One of the reasons I think was that female characters in it had more agency than in fairy tales, and there was always this added phylosophical edge. No wonder I couldn’t find any friends my age 😀
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Julie in the movie Julie and Julia about a young woman who cooks her way through Julia Child’s book. It hit me when she went to the Ritual Cobb Salad lunch with 3 of her friends. She was the odd one out – the only one who wasn’t successful like the others and then when they about her no one listened. Her friend interviewed her to make fun of her. She got hyperfocused on the cooking thing. Anyway…the character in that movie seemed to be.
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I think most of the main characters in Parks and Rec and Gilmore Girls are autistic.
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Gilmore Girls! Fascinating!!! Never made the connection but it makes total sense. Lorelai is that rare breed of cat: an autistic ENFP! Huh!
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Dr Temperance “Bones” Brennan from the show Bones. The actor who portrayed her (Emily Deschanel) has said in an interview that if it was a cable show (as opposed to a network show) that from the beginning they would have explicitly referenced Asperger’s or ASD.
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Loved that show. Along with Criminal Minds and Grimm.
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Daria was my idol as a gloomy preteen
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Enola Holmes. I might have missed the clues had the people around her not pointed it out. For instance, and in posh British accents no less. “…asking questions, doubting those in charge, not seeing their protection for what it is., trying to tear it down. Well it only takes one little flame to start a fire, and my job is to keep crushing those bloody flames out!” – Grail.
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Wednesday Adams in Wednesday on Netflix. Calling the townfolk, “Normies” is a new favorite way to refer to those people we don’t quite understand. “People can dismiss me and make a million other excuses, but I’m not gonna stop.” WA
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Jane Eyre! I did a podcast interview about my theory (not just my theory) that she’s autistic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po58hV3wpi8
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I’m re-watching How I Met Your Mother, and with this new perspective Robin Scherbatsky really reads as autistic.
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Lol! Same! I was obsessed with the show before rewatching s1-4 on repeat.
Robin seemed so cool at the beginning until the later seasons where the reality of autistic women set in: work focused, bad childhood from crazy parents except the one appearance from her mom, dating woes, and overall a lot of sadness of her character growth where the overall show writing died off steam
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Good point! Maybe she blends in more when the other characters are chaotic too, but starts to stand out when her peers mature.
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and then she got married so i thought she’s sort of like a reformed autistic. but nope.
do you think lily is autistic too? by virtual of them being friends
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Interesting question about Lilly! I think autism indicators she has are: strong tendency for vigilante justice, special interest in art (strong enough to run away from her original wedding date with Marshall to go paint in California), and broken relationships in her family of origin. Also, wow, her father ruined his whole life over a special interest in board games…
But then she has a much more approachable vibe than Robin. Maybe that just means she masks more strongly? What do you think?
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I wonder this too about Grace and Frankie. Sure, Frankie is “obviously” neurodivergent. But is Grace really neurotypical? She founded her own very successful company. And raised her kids in a pretty f-ed up way. No way Brianna is not autistic, right? And Mallory – four kids, then divorced – maybe just better at masking?
The diversity of autism in women fascinates me.
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