SeriesFest Season 9 Conversations: Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer, Actor

Actor Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer at SeriesFest. Photo by Bear Gutierrez for SeriesFest.

Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer took to SeriesFest to talk about the continued need for change within Hollywood and the film industry. Facing discrimination from a young age for her differently abled self, she has been fighting to make sure that stops. People are more than just their different ability, they’re people. We have likes and dislikes, good days, bad days, and sometimes the constant focus on someone’s different ability is hard to deal with. LoLo’s fight to be more than just someone with a different ability isn’t the only thing remarkable about her. She is also a notable actor and an author, with her talent reaching beyond it all at how larger than life she is.
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Shae: A lot of what you guys spoke to, hit way too close to home. Especially since, I was born in ’85. So, growing up in the school system, they tried to force me into different classrooms, like they did with other differently abled kids. Which I straight up ignored.
 
Lolo: The same thing with me in high school. They were like, “Oh, well, now that she has a disability. She's supposed to be in these classes.” And my counselor and my mom, were like, “Lauren, do you want to go?” And I was like, “No,” and, and I think too, I think that's kind of part of what needs to happen, and the change that needs to happen. Because at that time, I knew nothing about disability. I didn't know disability culture, I know nothing. Right. So sometimes I feel like, damn, maybe I should have went into that classroom to like, promote some kind of change. But I didn't know anything at 14, you know? But I think that's the thing is like, we should be able to still feel confident and be like, “Oh, I'm about to go into class with other people like me,” or we can all hang out or the separation not even exist in general. Right. Um, just so we can all interact and have a good time. So, I totally feel that because I dealt with that as well.
 
Shae: I feel a kindred spirit with you, how you talk about having a disability is really relatable for a lot of us.
 
Lolo: Yeah. No, literally, it's a real, it's a real thing that people don't recognize, you know, and I think that's also where the fine line with wanting disability to be quote unquote, normalized is that the fine line between normalizing and then the sheer ignorance of it or the dismissiveness of it, and turning it into the butt of the joke, right? It's like the disabled, we're always the ones that have the butt of the joke. We're always being laughed at versus laughed with, you know. And so, again, we want to be normalized, but it's like, you're not clowning every single person for, whatever it may be all the time. It's a lot of levels to be worked on. So, I'm just hoping, like, the panel today helped.
 
Shae: I think it definitely did help. And that is another topic I wanted to talk about. Yeah, I myself use humor as a huge coping mechanism. Because, if I'm going to be laughed at, I'm going to be laughed at because I've made you. Do you notice that you do something similar? Or people tend to kind of feel more comfortable crossing that line?
 
Lolo: Oh, 100,000% I've always been a goofball. Even like, before my disability, but yeah, humor, comedy has all been my way of whether I knew it, or not, making everyone feel comfortable with my existence. It is something that you know, now that I'm getting older, and I'm better at understanding, disability and disabled culture, and ableism and all these different terms, is learning how to still use humor as the crux of my personality, versus the coping mechanism to make me feel better about the environment that I may be in. You know, and I feel like a lot of us probably do that, because we know that if we're not laughing, if we're not smiling, if we’re not goofing off, if I were to just sit still and daydream without doing anything. People go “Oh my god. I'm so sorry. I feel so bad. She's sitting by herself. She's not happy because she's not smiling.” Yeah, it's just like, I'm literally chillin’. I'm daydreaming about Michael B. Jordan right now. I'm not caring about what y'all are talking about. But if I sit still without a smile on my face, it's a next level of emotion that's created that doesn't even exist.
 
Shae: Do you find that people project a different kind of emotion onto you?
 
Lolo: Yeah, you just you, how do I word this? And I can't speak for everyone's experience but as a disabled person myself, yeah, I feel like I have to be on. On a certain stage so that everyone feels comfortable not only to be around me, but to talk to me like I'm a person.
 
Shae: Do you find people often treat you differently?
 
Lolo: You know, you can feel the energy when, like, people are saying certain things or complementing for reason. It's like they give the compliment, because they feel like no one else has ever complimented you ever in your life. So, there's like this next level of like, thanks. Appreciate it. But it's always that and you can always feel that intention off somebody. Why is it always condescending and not like, “Yo, I think your outfit is dope.”
 
Shae: Which by the way, you look amazing. I love your cardigan! How do you think we could change how people interact with us?
 
Lolo: As disabled people, we have to do better at also not using our disability as a way to have a conversation with other people as well. You know, we have to let go of our trauma stories unless the context of the conversation makes sense to bring it up. And if you're comfortable to bring it up. But I think we also too, as a community, we have to do a better job of making sure that we're not always only talking about our disability all day every day. Get it? You're a journalist, you know, I'm an actress. This is what I talk about. When I'm out at a bar or at the after parties or whatever that's going to be happening, disabilities are the last thing I want to talk about. Not because I don't want to talk about disability. But it's because there's so many things, I know I can talk about that it's like, I talked about that there. So, let's talk about this here. Because this environment, the context of this situation, feeds to talk about everything else except the disability.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

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