Diksha Sundriyal
The fourth episode of Fox’s ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ Season 3 focuses on the kidnapping of an army officer named Sophie Kirby. To get to the bottom of the case and find her captors, the MPU digs into the history of her husband, Adam (Kurt Yaeger), who is also an officer in the army. It turns out that he has been keeping a few secrets, and Sophie’s kidnapping is the result of his bad choices. One of the major plot points in Adam’s story, which also influences the questionable decisions he makes, is his prosthetic leg. The story behind the character’s leg is one thing, but it is the actor’s journey that serves as an inspiration.
Adam Loses His Leg During a Mission
When Adam is called into the MPU to be told about his wife’s kidnapping, he shares details about his own work and mentions being in rehab. He reveals that several years ago, he lost his leg during a mission in Afghanistan. Since then, he has been removed from active duty, and his job keeps him desk-bound and is more about handling logistics and whatnot. He is posted at the munitions center, where he keeps track of the armaments and where they go. He is a diligent person but not prone to corruption that comes out due to personal challenges.
It takes a while for Adam to reveal that the process of rehabilitation was much more difficult than anyone knew about. The injury was physically taxing and took an emotional toll on him. What’s worse is that getting a prosthetic leg for him was insanely expensive. It was necessary for him to have it, but instead of talking about his financial problems with his wife or his friends, he took a completely different route. He made a deal with a biker gang who would help him with the financials in return for him illegally sending weapons from the munitions center their way. Eventually, this deal came back to bite him when the gang kidnapped his wife, making him reconsider the choice he made and how badly he handled it.
Kurt Yaeger’s Road to Recovery was Long Following a Devastating Accident
Kurt Yaeger might be better known for being an actor and a writer, but before that, he enjoyed a successful career as a professional BMX rider (where he got the nickname Crowbar) and an X Games athlete. In 2006, he lost control of his bike, which led him to hit a guardrail, and he fell off a 40-foot cliff. The accident led him to have a broken pelvis, a torn bladder, a torn ACL and MCL, seven broken vertebrae, broken ribs, collapsed lungs, and deep pain thrombosis in his lower limb. He spent three and a half months in hospital and had 27 surgeries, which included the amputation of his left leg below the knee. He spent the next several months in rehab. Apart from the professional help, he dedicated himself to going back to normal. He revealed that he would do the seven-mile loop around Lake Merced in San Francisco.
While it might have seemed impossible to another person, he did not want to limit himself due to his fear. Even after all the setbacks and challenges caused by the repeated surgeries, he managed to get back on his feet. He has made a name for himself by working on projects like FX’s ‘Sons of Anarchy,’ Netflix’s ‘Another Life,’ and ‘NCIS.’ He was also in the British band Rudimental’s music video for their hit song, ‘Waiting All Night,’ which focuses on his healing journey. The actor has since performed his own stunts in movies and TV shows. In CBS’ ‘Tell Me a Story,’ he rappelled down a 25-foot building. He talked about his experience on the set of the TV show ‘Lethal Weapon,’ where he performed his own stunts, and it took a week for the crew to discover that he was an amputee.
Kurt Yaeger is Dedicated to Creating More Space for Actors With Disabilities
Over the years, Kurt Yaeger has used his success and his platform to advocate for people with disabilities. He has actively worked to create more roles for actors with a disability, even if it meant writing them himself. He is a member of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Committee Performers with Disabilities. He founded the XA Endowment Fund, which works with an Advisory Board of Hollywood to develop the talents of disabled actors at an early stage. Recounting his own journey as an amputee in Hollywood, he has talked about the number of times his disability has been given preference over him. He revealed that, at times, he felt that his prosthetic leg was the reason he got a role, not because of his hard work and talent.
Instead of building the character as an individual with their own complexities, Yaeger noted that people in Hollywood were most interested in reducing the said character to their disability and focusing just on that. The actor has tried to do away with this mindset by becoming an active speaker in how his roles are presented on the screen. Instead of just playing out the role as it is written, he asks questions about the character’s disability and shares his notes on how the character should behave based on their history. Through this, he intends to present a more realistic picture of what it means to be disabled. He wants to create a safe and creative space for actors where they are appreciated for their talents and are not limited to certain characters and tropes due to their disability.
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