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Kiera Allen stars opposite Sarah Paulson in the new thriller Run (available now on Hulu), in which she portrays the wheelchair-bound daughter of Paulson’s manipulative mother character. As a wheelchair user herself, Allen was encouraged to audition for the role by how thoughtfully her physical disability was portrayed in the script.
“This is one of the best representations of a disabled character I’ve ever seen in a script,” she says. “I actually emailed Aneesh [Chaganty], the director, and said, ‘Whatever happens with casting, I just can’t wait to see this movie, because the representation in this is unlike anything I’ve ever seen onscreen before.’ And I’m so thrilled that they were looking to cast authentically as well, which just makes it that much better.”
Allen adds that she connected with the portrayal of her character, Chloe Sherman, because her physical disability, while important to the plot, did not define her entire personality. “It doesn’t define her journey — it’s part of her history, it’s part of how she moves around, but she gets to be so many other things, which is how I feel about myself as well. I think if I had been younger and seen a film like this, that portrayed a wheelchair user like this, it would have made a big difference to me.”
