In the week since its release, Wicked has become a genuine phenomenon in the United States. The success of the musical has led to a variety of jokes and memes on the internet, but one of the movie’s stars, Marissa Bode, is encouraging fans to be kind about her character, Nessarose.
The actress, who uses a wheelchair just as her character does, explained in a five-minute TikTok video that there were some jokes about the character that made her uncomfortable.
“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 explained in the video. She added that it was totally acceptable to dislike Nessa or make jokes about her, as she’s a complex character who makes questionable decisions as the story progresses.
“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 OK, because she is fictional. That’s totally fine.”
Bode added that, while some jokes about Nessa are acceptable, she has no patience for jokes centered on her character’s disability.
“Aggressive comments and jokes about Nessa’s disability itself is [sic] 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.”
She added that she started hearing the jokes even before the movie’s release.
“Please be kind,” she concluded. “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.”