Tony Goldwyn, Tony Spiridakis & Elaine Hall

Original Air Date: June 2, 2024

“Ezra” the movie is one of the best of the year: a road trip comedy that normalizes autism. starring Bobby Cannavale, his real-life wife Rose Byrne, the great Robert DeNiro , Vera  Farminga,  Rainn Wilson and Whoopi Goldberg. Tony Spiridakis wrote the script based on his own now-adult son, who is autistic.  William A. Fitzgerald  of Montclair is an 15 year old with autism who headlines. Tony Goldwyn, of “Scandal” fame, directed and is the godfather of Spiridaksis’ son. Elaine Hall consulted and found the talented William A. Fitzgerald.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio,conversations about issues that matter. Here's your
host, three time Grasie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein. I want to tell
you about a tremendous, tremendous moviethat you must see. It is now
open. It is called Ezra.And listen to this cast before I get

(00:25):
to what it's about. Bobby Connavaliand his wife Rose Byrne and the great,
the great iconic Robert de Niro andVera Farmiga and Whoopee Goldberg and Tony
Goldwyn who we knew was the presidenton Scandal, and a newcomer, William

(00:46):
A. Fitzgerald. The movie Ezrais a road trip movie, but it's
much more than a road trip movie. It is the first movie I have
ever seen that basically normalizes autism.Now I watch this movie with my husband.
I'm very familiar with the autistic thecommunity because my son, my middle

(01:11):
son, is very involved. Thatis his career. He helps adults with
autism live independently, and so I'mvery familiar with this, but my husband
a little bit not so much.But he loved the movie because the movie

(01:34):
is a great movie. It's aboutfamily, it's funny, it's heartwarming.
So basically, Bobby Conivali is astand up comedian who has issues of his
own, who is living with hisfather, Robert de Niro, and he
is co parenting his eleven year oldson who is on autism spectrum. But

(02:02):
like I said, this is acomedy, so it is. I want
to introduce you to Tony Spiridacus whowrote this movie, Tony Goldwyn, the
director and who also has a rolein this movie, and also Elaine Hall,

(02:22):
who is a consultant. And Okay, so either any of you can
begin where did this movie begin with? How did it all come together?
And congratulations? Thank you Tony youstart thanks. It starts with the writer,

(02:43):
Yeah that's what they say. Yeah. No, it starts with my
son, Dimitri, and it startswith my journey with learning that he was
diagnosed and his behaviors were troubling enoughfor someone actually not my wife or myself
to actually say, let's diagnose ourson. But we were told from people

(03:08):
there were many disruptions that he exhibitedbehaviors that someone who was in the medical
community said, you know, youmight want to have him evaluated. And
I said, for what, youknow, like he's he's a pain in
the ass. Is there an evaluation? Is there a diagnosis that says that,
because that's what he is. Hedoesn't talk. He just screams and

(03:30):
a high pitched he bites people whenhe doesn't get what he wants. It's
like. And then I then theytold me, and I didn't really know
what autism. I didn't not really, I didn't know what autism was.
And then I went and went tothe place that was recommended, and we
were living in Connecticut, and theyhad a very good evaluation program actually for
autism, which was a benefit forus because we knew exactly where to go

(03:53):
and we got a very detailed,you know, diagnosis, and and then
it was the journey and and that'swhere the film Ezra really was born,
because I think all the things thatI'd gone through as a father and a
father who had a lot of reallybad ideas of how to treat this,

(04:16):
which was, let's fix it,let's throw money at it, how much
time do we need doctor, youknow, until the doctors all looked at
me and said, well, youknow, in a couple of years,
hopefully you'll understand that, you know, your son is who he is,
and you need some help, andso I thought that was kind of funny.
And then the beauty of this journeyis that Tony Goldwin is my best

(04:39):
friend, and so you know,there he was sort of writing shotgun in
terms of getting the story. Imean, at the time that that diagnosis
happened, he and I were livingin the same town actually in Connecticut,
and so he was hearing all thesestories and he saw me, though I
was making fun of it, hesaw that I was in a tremendous amount

(04:59):
of pain too, And so thatthen is the dichotomy, right, That's
the sort of two sides of thesame story that I think everybody experiences,
which is, you know, youwant to have a sense of humor,
but it's so hard sometimes. Andwhen I started writing the script, Tony
patiently read everything that I sent him, and it started just to give you

(05:25):
a perspective, twelve years ago iswhen I write the story, and it
just kept evolving as my son's life, you know, evolved, and so
changes were made along the way,and constantly I'd work in a writer's group,
happily in a writer's group that hadlike three parents who were all dealing

(05:46):
with children with autism, so thatwas a beautiful thing I could look to
them to go into giving me areal feedback, you know, like and
and that was super helpful. Andthen finally two and a half three years
ago, Tony, I kind ofcame to a point where I felt like
Dimitri was grown. He was overtwenty one, and I had arrived at

(06:10):
a place that I thought the scriptwas actually not you know, it's a
fictional version of a family going throughwhat it went through. But I was
really kind of feeling we were onsolid ground, and the people in my
writer's group were adamant that this shouldbe seen by many people. And so
I shared it the last time withTony, who had his reaction and thank

(06:32):
goodness, because here we are,and Tony Goldwin, what a cast you
got together for this? How didthat all come about? Well? As
I just said before, it startswith a great script. As Tony mentioned,
I had read many versions of thisas a friend over the years,
and I hadn't seen it for afew years, and Tony called me,

(06:56):
so, look, I've rewritten it. Would you take a look? And
I read it and I was somoved by it, and I just thought,
I said, I tell him wehave to do this together. I
have to direct this. And thenwe worked on the script for about a
year together to refine it little bit, and then yeah, we just started
reaching out to actors and Bobby Connavaliwas our first move because finding Max,

(07:19):
who's the protagonist of the piece,you know, as his father, it
was just a very tricky role tocast, and Bobby we just thought it
was perfect and he loved the scriptand said yes. And then the next
move was Robert de Niro, whowas our first choice, and we sent
it to Bob and he very quicklyengaged with us, which usually wait sometimes

(07:39):
months for big movie stars to evenread a script that you send them,
and Bob read it in a coupleof days and wanted to talk and then
worked with us in a very briefperiod of time. He gave Tony some
notes that transformed the script yet again, particularly regarding his character of Stan,
but it really transformed the entire theentire story and elevated it. And then

(08:03):
you know, once we had Bobbyand Bob blocked everybody, everybody wanted to
be in it, so we Idon't think we went everyone. We got
our first choices. You know,I knew of known Whoopee for years because
we were My very first break inthe movie business was in the movie Ghost
and Whoopy and I were in thattogether. And so I emailed Whoopy and
said, I'm doing this cool projectwith Bob and Bobby and what do you

(08:26):
think and would you read it?And she said, I'm in Didn't you
want to read the script? Shesaid, no, it sounds fun.
Just tell me where to show up. So Whoopy and Via Farmiga and Rain
Wilson, who's so wonderful in thefilm, and so yeah, we just
Rose of course, who's married toBobby kind of ally, and Bobby said,
you know, it'll be really rightfor Jenna, his wife, And
I said, well, Rose isat the top of our list, so

(08:48):
if you wouldn't mind whispering something inher ear. Oh, it's just a
tremendous movie. Now, one ineighty eight children are on the autism spectrum,
so we're really talking about a lotof children and many not even diagnosed

(09:11):
till later on in life. Andso that's where we bring in Elaine Hall,
who was a consultant. So whatwas your job on this movie?
Exactly, Elaine, because you havea son. Who is you know,

(09:33):
he really he's nonverbal, and youreally really struggled over the years. And
I have to say, I know, Neil, Neil is one of the
most extraordinary and brilliant people I haveever met in my life. But again,
he's nonverbal. Yes, yes,well, I am very very honored

(09:58):
to have been brought in early on. I was able to read the script
and loved every minute of it.Perhaps helped a little bit just my thoughts
about the character of the mom,you know, to bring to bring her
out a little bit, and Ithink mostly and you guys correct me if

(10:18):
I'm wrong here, Uh, justassuring that Ezra is out there. I
really believe when when when a characteris written, the actor is there and
we just have to find him.I introduced that idea of you we just
want someone where being on set istheir happy place, and encouraged to reach

(10:45):
out not just to autism organizations,but to do a broad reach. And
unfortunately I have a you know,kind of a broad reach and uh,
William Fitzgerald, who's so brilliant init, had his mom saw my Facebook
post looking for it, and Iwell, a couple of things. One

(11:07):
we auditioned one hundred autistic actors fromacross the country, and it really says
to the authenticity of the script.Tony and Tony were committed and the producers
that we would find someone who wasautistic. And perhaps I was just like
a little you know, just abird saying he's out there, and Tony's

(11:31):
been saying the reason it took twelveyears for the film to be made is
because we were waiting for William Fitzgeraldto turn twelve. So, and you
know something I didn't know no watchingthe movie, of course, that was
a question William A. Fitzgerald ishe on the autism spectrum? Or is

(11:54):
he just a young actor that's extraordinarythat I've never seen before. So I
did not know that. And Idid not know that you only auditioned children.
Absolutely, Yeah, that was fromthe from the very beginning, you
know, Tony and I there wasno way we were going to have a
neurotypical actor play Ezra. So thatwas where you know, we reached out

(12:16):
to Elane. We knew we neededhelp. And uh, but you know,
Lane, not only is everything thatyou have said, but she runs
this extraordinary I guess ran You're steppedaside now, right, from the Miracle.
She created this incredible organization called theMiracle Project, which is a mean

(12:39):
you can describe it better than me, but it's a theater company, theater
you know, program for autistic peopleand it's and it's incredible the work that
they do. So she really knowswhat she's doing and it was just really
helped us, alongside our casting directors, do this search for for for William.

(13:01):
So what are Williams dreams? Now? Does he want to continue with
acting? Elaine? Oh, youknow. He he's from New Jersey.
He was not in the Miracle Project, but he saw the post. His
mom said the post. So Ithink he's got the bug. I mean,
Tony, Tony you've seen him morerecently than I have. But he's
just he's such an William really reallyWilliam really wants to his own YouTube channel,

(13:28):
that's his goal in life. Butno, he's a naturally gifted he's
extraordinarily gifted actor and he knows itand and he has been you know,
he got an agent Rheightter when he'sbeen very close to getting some very big
parts in the past year and peoplehaven't even seen him in the movie.
But so I think if he wantsto keep up with it. He will
and he loves it. He's soI suspect he will. He'll keep keep

(13:52):
at it. You know. Iknow it's very early in the year,
but I do think you guys havean award winner here. I mean,
this is a movie that has itall. It's about family, it's it's
real, and you really get that. This is a real picture of a

(14:13):
real family. And like I said, this is the first movie at least
that I can say that normalizes autism. It's a movie that needed to be
made. It's a great movie.Congratulations, I'm telling you you will not
be disappointed. You've been listening toSunstein sessions on iHeartRadio, a production of

(14:35):
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