Ryan O'Connell on Netflix's 'Special'

Bullseye with Jesse Thorn

NPR

Society & Culture

4.7 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Content warning: This interview contains some explicit language and graphic, frank talk about sex that some listeners might be sensitive to. Ryan O'Connell is the creator and star of the Netflix show Special. It's a semi-autobiographical sitcom about Ryan's own life – his experience as a gay man, and coming to terms with his identity as a disabled person. Ryan has cerebral palsy. It's a congenital disorder that can affect someone's movement, muscle tone, or posture. For Ryan, that means it manifests mainly as a limp. Season one of the show tackles Ryan coming to terms with his disability. In the latest season Ryan learns to become more accepting of himself. The show's depiction of disability on screen is groundbreaking. It shows the intersection of disability and sexuality in a way that is rarely ever seen on screen. And it does it in a way that is funny, lighthearted and relatable. Public radio veteran Ray Suarez interviews Ryan on the latest episode of Bullseye.

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Transcript

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0:25.0	Thanks.
0:26.0	Bullseye with Jesse Thorn is a production of MaximumFun.org and is distributed by NPR.
0:46.2	It's Bullseye, I'm Jesse Thorn.
0:48.5	Next up on the show, a conversation with Ryan O'Connor, recorded last year.
0:53.5	Ryan is the creator and star of the show's special, which is streaming on Netflix, which is
0:58.4	loosely based on a book that Ryan wrote in 2015 called, I'm Special and Other Lives We
1:03.7	Tell Ourselves.
1:05.6	Both the book and the television series draw directly from Ryan's life.
1:10.0	Ryan has cerebral palsy, he calls it CP for short.
1:13.1	It's a congenital disorder that can affect someone's movement, muscle tone, or posture.
1:19.4	For Ryan, that mostly means a limp.
1:22.8	When Ryan was 20, he left his hometown and started college in New York.
1:26.6	It was a chance to start over.
1:28.7	Instead of telling folks he had cerebral palsy, he said he had been hit by a car, which
	...

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