‘Wicked’ star Marissa Bode condemns Nessa jokes about her disability

Marissa Bode is trying to change attitudes toward her Wicked character’s disability for good.

The actress, who uses a wheelchair in real life and on screen, has addressed ableism she has observed in discussions surrounding the new musical film, in which she plays Nessarose, the sister of Cynthia Erivo’s protagonist Elphaba.

“There’s something that’s made me a bit uncomfortable, and as somebody who’s disabled with a platform, I just wanted to talk about it really quick,” she began in a five-minute TikTok she posted on Friday.

Bode noted that it’s completely appropriate and understandable to dislike Nessa as a character and make jokes about her, as she’s a complex figure with shortcomings who makes poor decisions over the course of the musical. “That’s the beauty of art and Wicked — these characters and the movie wouldn’t be what it was if there weren’t different opinions on the characters and who’s truly wicked or not,” she said. “And not liking Nessa herself is okay, because she is fictional. That’s totally fine.”

However, the actress added that she has no patience for jokes and criticisms of her character that center around her disability. “Aggressive comments and jokes about Nessa’s disability itself is deeply uncomfortable, because disability is not fictional,” she said. “At the end of the day, me, Marissa, is the person that is still disabled and in a wheelchair. And so it is simply a low-hanging fruit that too many of you are comfortable taking.”

Bode explained that she’s heard countless variations on the most basic ableist jokes. “Before even being cast in Wicked, I had received comments — just as me, as Marissa, not Nessa — around the words of ‘stand up for yourself,’ ‘I guess you can’t stand him,’ et cetera,” she said. “These comments aren’t original, and when these jokes are being made by non-disabled strangers with a punchline of not being able to walk, it very much feels like laughing at rather than laughing with.”

She went on to express why she felt afraid to speak up about her discomfort in the first place. “The most frustrating part about all of this is how scared I am to even post/talk about this, which is also the bigger reason as to why I’m making this video in the first place,” Bode said. “This goes so far beyond me, Marissa, just needing to avoid comments on the internet. These comments do not exist in a vacuum. Aggressive comments of wanting to cause harm and push Nessa out of her wheelchair or that she deserves her disability are two really gross and harmful comments that real disabled people, including myself, have heard before.”

The performer said she’s witnessed other disability advocates experience serious discomfort as a result of similar comments. “I am scared, also, because I have seen firsthand what has happened to my disabled peers who are outspoken online when it comes to calling out ableism and why jokes of standing and being a vegetable — which is a derogatory term, by the way, for disabled people, and a comment that I saw about Nessa — these disabled creators’ comments are flooded with ableist comments,” she said. “When speaking on ableism, they’re told to just take a joke, and that they’re asking too much, and to stop complaining, to the point where some of my disabled peers, these disabled creators, have needed to take a break online for their own mental well-being. To state the obvious, that’s not good.”

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Bode called on Wicked audiences to be more sensitive as they discuss her character and other disabled people. “Rather than dismissing one another and claiming an experience can’t be true because you personally don’t feel that way about a joke that wouldn’t have affected your demographic anyways, listen to the people or to the person that it is affecting and how it makes them feel,” she said. “Thankfully, I’m at a place in my life today where I can recognize these jokes about disability are made out of ignorance. I couldn’t say the same about Marissa 10 years ago, and it would have affected younger me a lot more, and I’m worried that a younger version of myself is somewhere on the internet and is harmed by these comments.”

She concluded, “Please be kind. And lastly, I want to say one of the major themes within Wicked is having the ability to listen and understand one another, and I truly hope that is something a lot of you can practice more and take with you. Thank you.”

Bode made her feature-film debut with Wicked and recently told Entertainment Weekly that she was particularly thrilled to perform wire work in a scene in which Elphaba levitates Nessa’s chair. “I am supposed to be scared in the scene itself,” she said. “And every time the camera would cut, immediately after just freaking out in the air, I was like, ‘Let’s run it back. Let’s go again.’ It was so much fun.”

Wicked is playing now in theaters.