Farrelly brothers get disability award
BOSTON — Film director brothers Peter and Bobby Farrelly are being recognized for pressing Hollywood repeatedly and publicly to do a better job of casting and portraying people with disabilities.
The Boston-based Ruderman Family Foundation, a leading voice in calling for more opportunities for the disabled, announced Wednesday the brothers are the recipients of its sixth annual Morton E. Ruderman Award in Inclusion.
“When you tell a story, you want it to take place in a real world — and it’s not a real world if they don’t include everybody,” said Peter Farrelly, who co-wrote and directed “Green Book,” which won Oscars last year for best picture and best original screenplay.
Bobby Farrelly, director of 1998’s “There’s Something About Mary,” recalled how the brothers played with children with disabilities in the neighborhood where they grew up in Cumberland, Rhode Island, just over the border from Massachusetts.
“They made us laugh. They were our friends,” he said. “And so when we started making movies, we thought, why wouldn’t we include people with disabilities in the movies — in the stories that we tell — because they are a part of our life.”
The brothers have collaborated on other hit films including “Dumb and Dumber,” “Me, Myself & Irene” and “The Heartbreak Kid.”
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