Nessarose From "Wicked" Called Out The "Deeply Uncomfortable" Jokes About Her Disability

If you've seen Wicked, you probably recognize Marissa Bode.

She plays Elphaba's favored sister Nessarose and recently, she took to TikTok to call out the "deeply uncomfortable" jokes people have been making about Nessa's disability.

"As someone who's disabled with a platform, I just wanted to talk about it real quick," Marissa began her post.

She said, on one hand, "It's absolutely okay to not like a fictional character." It's also fine to make "harmless" and "goofy" jokes. "I am a deeply unserious person," Marissa shared. "I love a little jokey joke. The house jokes? Silly, goofy, harmless because the basis of the joke is fictional. Jokes about Nessa's actions or personality? Silly, goofy because she herself is fictional."

But when it comes to jokes about Nessa's disability itself, that's obviously not okay. "[It's] deeply uncomfortable," Marissa stated, "because disability is not fictional. At the end of the day, me, Marissa, is the person that is still disabled and in a wheelchair."

Marissa said "aggressive comments of wanting to cause harm and push Nessa out of her wheelchair or that she deserves her disability," specifically, are "very gross and harmful."

"I am scared also [to say this]," Marissa added, "because I have seen firsthand what has happened to my disabled peers who are outspoken online when it comes to calling out ableism and 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." But she said she wanted to speak out to protect anyone else from being "harmed" by the jokes.

"Be kind," she advised. "One of the major themes within Wicked is having the ability to listen and to understand one another. And I truly hope that is something a lot of you can practice more and take with you."

You can watch the full video here and see Wicked now in theaters.