Ruth Madeley will play disability rights activist Judy Heumann in the Apple movie Being Heumann from CODA director Sian Heder.
The BAFTA-nominated actress will play Heumann as she leads over a hundred disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building, kicking off a 28-day sit-in. The protest led to the enforcement of section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which required all federal spaces to become accessible. Heumann, known as “the mother of the disability rights movement,” was a central architect of the Americans with Disabilities Act. She died in 2023 at the age of 75.
The film is based on Heumann’s best-selling memoir of the same name, which Heder and Rebekah Taussig adapted for the screen.
Heder will also produce under her overall deal with Apple, along with David Permut and Kevin Walsh for The Walsh Company via that banner’s overall deal with the studio. Heumann’s managers John W. Beach and Kevin Cleary of Gravity Squared Entertainment will also serve as producers. Executive producers include a posthumous credit for Heumann, Being Heumann co-author Kristen Joiner and Diana Pokorny.
“What an unbelievable honor to play The Mother of disability rights, an icon and powerhouse to the disabled community. Judy has always been a source of inspiration for me personally, and I am so excited to share her story with the world,” said Madeley, who was born with spina bifida. Her credits include U.K. series Dr. Who and Years and Years.
Madeley is repped by Curtis Brown and Tapestry London.
