“Wicked” star Marissa Bode posted a video on TikTok on Thursday claiming that she recently missed a Southern Airlines flight because of her wheelchair.
“I was denied boarding the plane because I was disabled,” Bode said. “I wish it was clickbait. I wish it was a lie, but that’s what happened.”
Bode explained that she had trouble finding a virtual ticket before boarding her flight to Pennsylvania. When she asked a flight attendant for help, she was told that she was not allowed to board the plane because she was in a wheelchair.
“So I got to the gate and I was like, ‘Hey, can you help me find my boarding pass?'” Bode recalled. “And the two guys at the gate looked at me and were like, ‘Can you stand?’” And I said, “No.” Then they said, “We’re sorry, but for this reason we will not be able to board your flight.” They further said that all planes of this airline have stairs to board the plane. Wild. I’ve never heard of anything like that before. ”
She went on to say, “I thought disabled people were not an afterthought. Why would you know that disabled people exist, but you obviously tend to forget, but choose not to update the planes? And I thought, ‘This is blatant racism.'”
Southern Airlines’ Conditions of Carriage states that “Passengers must be able to ascend and descend several flights of stairs in order to board the aircraft.” The contract also states that Southern Airlines’ aircraft are exempt from providing mechanical lifts as required by the Airline Access Act because their aircraft have a capacity of “28 passengers or less.”
But despite that policy, Bode said her manager “spoke to them in advance and gave me plenty of assurance that they would be able to catch my flight on time.”
Bode broke out playing Elphaba’s sister Nessarose in 2024’s Wicked and last year’s sequel Wicked: For Good. Variety exclusively revealed in January that Bode will star in the upcoming psychological thriller Snare, directed by Sonya O’Hara and Adam Helsel.
In “Snare,” Bode plays Greta Mills, a mushroom researcher who falls prey to a violent love triangle. Greg Tarzan Davis, who starred in “Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” will also star.
