“Unveiling Secrets: Jon Gunn Reveals the Hidden Truths Behind Storytelling in SYS Podcast Episode 532!”
Jon Gunn
Yeah, it’s a great question because first of all, I do have many people in my life who have autism, who have children with autism, there are people in my family with autism. I think you recognize as soon as you look at a story like this that most people in the world are one degree away from somebody who has autism or someone who’s neurodivergent. And so, it wasn’t hard at all for me to access truth from my own life in that. Also, the family, Scott and his family who wrote the book and whose life it’s about were extremely available to us. And then we also had autism consultants. We had the script read multiple times by multiple people for sensitivity of understanding like, how can we reflect this true story in a way that’s compelling in a way that is entertaining, like you said, but in a way that’s also sensitive to all the fact that very often people with autism aren’t reflected accurately or frequently or well, you know. And I really wanted the community of people either with autism who or have autism in their life, I want them to be happy and to embrace this movie. So I hope that we did that justice and that it’s just, you know, I’ve heard so much good feedback so far, just the fact that that’s a story that’s told from the point of view with the person who has autism. But also, that it’s like, you know, we’re not overly earnest about it. It’s like this is a very, you know, common thing. There’s a lot of people with autism and there’s lots of different kinds of people with autism. And so that’s this story. This is one person’s experience who has autism and brittle bone disease as well, which is another condition that’s more unique that not as many people are impacted by. But yeah, of course, I hope so much. This is a love letter to the experience of this family and part of their experience is autism. And so, for people who have autism or are impacted by it, I would hope that they would see this film and feel that it’s a celebration and a beautiful and authentic representation of that experience.
