By Evana Arvanitis
Marissa Bode, recently launched into stardom through her role as Nessarose Thropp in the Wicked duology, visited SMU on Tuesday evening as part of the Tate Lecture Series. The lecture, centered on “championing disability representation in the arts,” explored everything from accessibility to Bode’s personal journey into acting.
Bode is an American actress and disability advocate living in Los Angeles. With her rapidly growing platform, she has become an increasingly visible voice for accessibility and inclusion, advocating for more authentic disability representation across theater and film.
The evening opened with remarks from SMU President Jay Hartzell, who introduced Bode as a storyteller whose work reaches beyond the screen. Speaking about the Wicked films, Hartzell said, “It’s a reminder that storytelling, at its best, has the power to open doors and to make spaces for voices that deserve to be heard.”
That mission closely aligns with Bode’s own work—both as an actress and an advocate. She seeks to normalize the inclusion of people with disabilities. As a story rooted in self-acceptance and authenticity, Wicked serves as a fitting backdrop for conversations about representation, making the lecture an extension of the dialogue the film sparks beyond the stage.
On stage, Bode spoke with SMU practice in theater professor Joel Ferrell, discussing accessibility, Bode’s youth and start in acting, and Wicked. One of the most memorable moments came when Bode reflected on a community theater production she was set to perform in just one week before a car accident at age 11 led her to begin using a wheelchair. She recalled a hospital visit from the show’s directors—a couple who fully expected her to continue in the production. “I think something that she showed me was, it shouldn’t be too hard to adapt,” Bode said.
She went on to describe how the directors reworked a tap-dancing number she had rehearsed before the accident. “We had rehearsed this tap dancing number, and I was so excited to do it,” she said. “Obviously, now I’m in a wheelchair, so we were trying to figure out how to adapt it. What we did was put our hands in shoes and did the same exact tap number on tabletops in front of us.” With this, Bode aims to demonstrate how simple it is to include people with disabilities in various spaces and that by doing so, we normalize it for generations to come.
Another core insight of her lecture was identity, specifically how it develops despite obstacles to self-understanding. When Ferrell asked Bode what advice she would give young people grappling with imposter syndrome, she shared a moment from college, when she described herself as going through a “huge identity crisis.” In a class focused on marketing oneself in the entertainment industry, Bode asked a guest speaker how to promote herself as an actor when she didn’t yet know who she was as a person. The speaker, Monique Coleman—known to many for her role as Taylor in the High School Musical franchise—offered advice that stayed with her: “You don’t have to. You can try on a number of different hats. You don’t have to come to one particular conclusion.”
That sentiment encapsulates a moral truth that both Bode and the story of Wicked share: the importance of learning to accept yourself as you are and to be confident enough to stand up for yourself. As Bode continues to navigate through her career, she looks forward to seeing spaces opening up to people with disabilities and their inclusion being normalized.
