Ell

This is how Martin Sheen puts on a jacket, and he does it that way because of an injury done to his arm when he was born. His left arm was crushed by forceps as they were removing him from the birth canal, which made that arm shorter than the other and also limited his overall movement. So, he puts on a jacket like this--because he has to. He just doesn’t have the movement and flexibility necessary to slip his arm into the sleeves another way. 

But, on the show...he just did it, and did it with such panache and confidence that no one dared even question it. He played President Bartlet on TV for, like, 6 years, and so for 6 years that was just how Fictional President of the United States put his jacket on. And, yeah, it was a bit odd maybe, people definitely noticed, but mostly all anyone actually thought about it was “Damn, that looks cool and badass as fuck.” 

It became a signature for the character, not in any kind of negative or “that’s weird” way, but just, like...something unique and special that people recognized and had really positive associations with. You’d see that jacket flip and it would trigger this little bright smiley “Fuck yeah, you go get’em!” feeling inside. 

There’s even this bit, in one of the show’s most acclaimed episodes, that includes flashbacks to when the character is much younger, and they had the younger actor do this move when he puts on a jacket (which he had to learn how to do of course) and then used it as a transition cut to the present day character finishing the motion--a way of linking them together, making them feel more like one person with one continuing story to the audience. And like, I remember, seeing it when it first aired, and fuck, I got chills, it was just such great moment! They were literally using this little detail, that was entirely due to the actor adapting to his disability, as a way to ground their flashback sequences with the present storyline and make those scenes feel more real and present to the audience and it worked. Because nobody working on the show saw Sheen’s funky jacket move as problem, they actually found a way for it to actively make the story better. 

They really just went and DID THAT