Wicked star Marissa Bode is calling out some “very gross,” “harmful” and “aggressive” comments she’s heard about her character Nessarose’s disability since the Jon M. Chu musical movie adaptation hit theaters on Nov. 22.

The actress took to TikTok on Friday to share a five-minute video, sharing her thoughts on the “uncomfortable” things circulating online about the character. As a person with disabilities with a platform, she wants to use it to bring attention to what she has read.

“It is absolutely OK to not like a fictional character,” she said. “I am going to be admitting my bias in the way that I have a lot of different feelings on Nessa than a lot of you do, and that’s totally fine. I think Nessa is complex, but that’s the beauty of art. Wicked and these characters and the movie wouldn’t be what it was if there weren’t different opinions on the characters and who’s truly wicked or not.”

“Disability is not fictional,” Bode continued. “At the end of the day, me, Marissa, is the person that is still disabled and in a wheelchair. So, it is simply a low-hanging fruit that too many of you are comfortable taking.”

A lot of the comments are coming from non-disabled strangers with a punchline revolving around their disability, giving a sense of laughing at someone rather than with them. But the most frustrating thing, she said, is that she feels scared to talk or post about things like this.

Bode admitted that she’s also scared because she has seen firsthand with her peers who are disabled and have called out ableism but are told to “just take a joke” or “stop complaining.” They have had to take steps back from content creation for their mental well-being, which is not OK, she said.

Bode encouraged people to stop dismissing each other when they don’t think an experience can be true because they haven’t gone through it themselves. She acknowledged that, thankfully, she’s at a place in her life where she recognizes that jokes about disability “are made out of ignorance.”

Bode concluded, “Lastly, I want to say one of the major themes within Wicked is having the ability to listen and to understand one another. And I truly hope that is something a lot of you can practice more and take with you.”

Wicked has broken several records, including the biggest box office opening for a Broadway musical adaptation. Wicked: Part Two is set to be released on Nov. 21, 2025.