Actor Stephen Graham has been described as one of the most talented actors the United Kingdom has ever seen. Yet, he almost didn’t get a chance at his breakthrough role in Snatch when the director Guy Ritchie, asked whether he had come to read for the part. Stephen had just come along to support his friend who was trying to get the job, but when Guy found out that he was also an actor, he encouraged him to give it a try. Stephen told him that because he was dyslexic, he couldn’t do a cold read. I don’t know whether he knew that Guy Ritchie is also dyslexic – but fortunately for Stephen, Guy asked him to improvise the scene instead and he completely smashed […]
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo in Netflix’s Lincoln Lawyer
“We were shooting and I said: ‘I can not do this’. I was going to quit.” — Manuel Garcia-Rulfo Manuel Garcia-Rulfo had big shoes to fill – following on Matthew McConaughey’s Mickey Haller in Netflix’s remake of The Lincoln Lawyer. English is a second language for him AND he’s dyslexic. But if you were to watch him in the role today – he’s an absolute natural. He brings distinctive differences to the role and he does marvelously. Brock and I have both been enjoying his series and also love that he’s talking about his dyslexia in interviews. García-Rulfo’s dyslexia increased his nervousness. To learn his lines, he resorted to a method taught to him by his grandmother, who was an artist.
“I […]Comforts of the Abyss: New Book from Philip Schultz
"Schultz, founder and director of The Writers Studio, chronicles the challenges he faced as a poet, fiction writer, and teacher that led him to see the aesthetic and psychological value of creating a writing persona. He has long confronted a pervasive inner critic...
Dyslexia and Farming: Matt Baker [Premium]
“If somebody asked me if I could live my life again without dyslexia, I would say no, because you recognise things and you do things differently to the way everybody else does, and that gets you to the front of the queue. You see things which are very obvious to you. I’m very practical and visual – that’s what I’m drawn to. And you find ways around challenges and it gives you a different perspective on life.” — Matt Baker of Our Farm in the Dales In the United Kingdom, research has suggested that one in ten people are dyslexic, but besides being over-represented in schools of engineering and art design, dyslexia is also found more commonly in agricultural students (one in five). […]
Henry Winkler: Find the Very Best for You
“There is an emotional component to the learning challenged,” says Winkler, whose parents called him “dumb dog” for his failures. “You don’t have a sense of self because you’re not keeping up with everybody… you feel terrible about yourself.” — Henry Winkler Henry Winkler seems to be everywhere. He seems to be having the time of his life and giving generously of his life lessons and hopes for the future. He’s currently in the 3rd season of HBO’s Barry, in an Emmy Award-winning role of a drama teacher, but he also finds every opportunity to share his life lessons about dyslexia and finding the very best for yourself.
In a lovely interview in the New York Times, Henry shared how he fell […]A Dyslexic’s Guide to Writing [Premium]
“We have so many tools to take care of the spelling, but not the tools to bring a fresh and new perspective to the world. Focus on your voice and your message, and the rest will follow.” — Tess Gadd Tess Gadd is an interface designer based in Cape Town who also writes a popular blog on Medium. She shared three strategies she uses to overcome challenges with writing. 1. PROOFREADING TOOLS “Enter Grammarly. I have been using the pro version for a year now, and it has made such a difference to my writing. Not only does it pick up mistakes, but it is also improves my ability to edit and proofread my own work.” 2. READING TOP TO BOTTOM AND BOTTOM TOP “When […]
The Voice Inside Your Head [Premium]
“When I was eight years old, a school psychologist gave me a bit of advice about my brain. He said I may have a form of brain damage, and he wanted to send me to a special class. I was a classic dyslexic: I wasn’t born with a good memory, and I couldn’t concentrate; reading and writing were always a challenge for me. Throughout my school career, I learned by having my mother and friends read the syllabus to me; I forced myself to memorize it and what I didn’t get, which was most of it, I just didn’t get. I had no future because I just couldn’t grasp what was being taught to me. In twelve years of school, I couldn’t read a book […]
From High School Drop-Out to VP of Engineering [Premium]
There are some people who are so insightful into their cognitive processes that talking to them is pure gold. Gary MacGregor is one of those people – he’s a VP of an electronic device company and recent PhD recipient from the University of Texas at Austin. He has a remarkable story and has been very generous in sharing what he has learned. Gary: “I’m a high school dropout. My parents were high school dropouts. I’m the first male in the family to go to college.” When Gary dropped out of school, he took a job working an oil refinery – a lucrative career for a person without a high school diploma. While he was working 12 hour shifts 84 hours a week, he would exercise […]
Marlon Brando, Dyslexia, and Method Acting [Premium]
There’s a new book out this year on method acting, and it mentions Marlon Brando, his mercurial temperament, his dyslexia, and his method acting. Apparently he had ambivalent feelings about taking one of the leading roles in A Streetcar Named Desire, and he was told to show up at the playwright’s (Tennessee Williams’) house in order to clinch the deal. After hitchhiking to Provincetown, he found Williams and his friends in the dark, occasionally getting up to go to the bathroom in the woods. Apparently, a fuse had blown and a toilet was broken and neither Williams nor any of his artist friends knew how to fix either. Brando immediately made an impression, fixing both, then reading for the lead character, Stanley Kowalski. Needless to […]
Higher Math for Scientists: Don’t Give Up [Premium]
“…To be a successful scientist, you need to do what you like to do. If you don’t like mathematics, don’t give up. That doesn’t forestall you’re being a scientist at all.” — E.O. Wilson One of the first science professors I had as a freshman at Harvard was E.O. Wilson, a pioneer of Evolutionary Biology, and scientific giant. I would only learn years later that he was also dyslexic, struggled with math, and was blind in one eye due to a childhood injury. He passed away in December at the age of 92, and left a legacy of insights on the natural sciences and the education of young scientists. One bit of advice that drew him into controversy was his strong insistence that “being […]
In Memoriam: Legendary Architect Lord Richard Rogers
Lord Rogers revolutionized architecture as well as the way people thought about city planning. At the peak of his success, he reconfigured his architecture firm as a charity. Rogers recently passed away at 88, but his legacy will live on. “My ethics may continue…” Rogers often spoke of the first 30 years of his life as “hell” because everyone said he was stupid (unrecognized dyslexia), but he said the last 30 years of his life have been “fantastic.”
“I had lots of trouble in school as a child, and I lost confidence. Teachers thought I was stupid. I learned to read very late, when I was 11. Dyslexia wasn’t recognized then, and the assumption was that you […]Jershika Maple Sings Her Heart Out On “The Voice”
"Jershika dedicated her song to the fourth and fifth grade teachers who helped Maple discover she had dyslexia, and it was filled with emotion and power..." — Taste of Country Jershika Maple described the alienation she felt as a 4th grader in Louisiana being...