According to Pearson, those sorts of procedures make their “profits from people’s insecurities.
“It’s always used very lazily,” he said.
“In an ideal world, actors with conditions would play the characters with these same conditions, but that’s a way off. Instead, film-makers tend to get a generic, ‘normal’ actor and use prosthetics. If they’d got Adam Sandler and blacked him up to play Nelson Mandela, there would have been an uproar … but with scars and stuff, it seems like people are cool with that.”
“I read somewhere nine out of 10 women don’t like how they look and I think that’s because they’re comparing themselves to the airbrushed images they see in Vogue or FHM. People lack a real literacy in the media. They don’t know what goes into producing these images. Media literacy should be part of education. I think we’ve done beauty a great disservice by quantifying it,” he explained.
Adam Pearson – acting career
During one of his regular visits to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children’s hospital in London, Adam saw a poster about the organization Changing Faces. According to their website, they are “UK’s leading charity for everyone with a scar, mark or condition on their face or body.” Pearson instantly knew he wanted to get involved.
Without telling his parents, Adam contacted the organization and got help with how to stay positive. One thing they taught him was to remember that the one’s treating him poorly “are the ones with the problem, not you.”
He studied business management at Brighton University, and upon graduating landed work in several television productions for Channel 4 and the BBC. Among these were appearances on the show The Undateables, as well as Beauty and the Beast, both of which deal with how society views disabilities in all forms.
In 2011, Adam Pearson’s life would take another drastic turn. Changing Faces contacted him, saying that producers were looking for a male character for the film Under the Skin.
Under the Skin, a science fiction film directed by Jonathan Glazer, became a huge success. Pearson starred alongside the Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson, and for him, it was a way of showing the world that anyone can achieve their dreams, no matter their appearance.
“One of the main reasons for taking the role was because it was so moving and honest,” Adam said.
“For me, the film is about what the world looks like without knowledge and without prejudice. It’s about seeing the world through alien eyes, I guess.”
Adam Pearson wants to break the stigma
He turned out to be a natural in front of the screen. According to Pearson, plenty of the dialog was improvised, and working with Johansson was something exceptional. He received her private email address in the end – and in the film, they even had to film a nude scene together.
“They just said ‘action’ and you do it,” he said. “I didn’t really think about it, I didn’t broadcast the information [that he was in the film] until quite near the release. I didn’t tell some people at all and just took them to see the film, I mean, my friend Heidi hasn’t made eye contact with me for a week.”
“[Scarlett Johansson was] brilliant. She’s really nice, charming, funny and intelligent once you get over the feeling of ‘Oh my God, this is Scarlett Johansson!’”
For Adam, becoming an actor wasn’t just about inspiring other people to chase their dreams and strive not to let anything get in their way. More importantly, it allowed him to challenge the stigma regarding showing disabilities on-screen on a global stage.
He explained: “There’s a lot of fear around the unknown. If I can try to be as normal as possible and show there’s nothing to fear – either on film or day to day, going round the corner to go shopping for milk – then the more people see it in wider society, the less stigma there is. If I just sit at home and mope, hugging the dog and crying, nothing’s going to change.”
One of the UK’s most influential disabled people
Since the success of Under the Skin in 2013, Adam has continued to work as an actor and disability rights activist. In 2017, he starred as himself in the feature film DRIB and in 2019 appeared in Chained for Life. Adam also featured in the movie A Different Man, starring Sebastian Stan, and has been described as “an actor of great charm” by The New York Times.
As mentioned, Adam is keen on breaking down the stigma surrounding his disability. He has spoken at many events, such as the World Health Innovation Summit, and given multiple TED talks. Moreover, he is an ambassador for The Prince’s Trust, Changing Faces, and Us In A Bus, winning both a RADAR Award and a Diana Award for his work.
In 2022, he was included on the top 100 list of the UK’s most influential disabled people.
Recently,m Pearson was a contestant on Celebrity Masterchef. Unfortunately, he was the first to be eliminated from the cooking show, but that didn’t really matter in the long run. The fact that he was on Celebrity Masterchef proves something unquestionably more important; nothing can stop you from doing what you love, no matter how you look or what disabilities you may have.
“Often with minority talent, and particularly disabled talent, they get pigeonholed into only doing massive air quotes here, disability thing,” Pearson told Metro.
“I’ve got no idea what disability things are, so if someone could let me know and I could start doing them, that would be great! But no, it was something that existed outside of that realm, and it seemed like a real opportunity to sort of step out of that bubble.”
At the time of writing, Adam does not have a girlfriend. If he were to have children, there’s a 50% chance he will pass on his condition, but – if it wasn’t abundantly obvious by now – he’s an extremely positive soul.
He continues to do his best to make the world a better place. No matter what happens, he knows that any future children will have amazing lives even if they do suffer from the same genetic disorder as him.
“My kids will be genetically awesome anyway,” Pearson proclaimed.
Adam Pearson is a true inspiration. Please, share this article to spread his story – let’s help him in breaking the stigma!