Creating Authentic Autistic TV Characters - Alex Plank

Post Reply New Topic

I'm interviewed on The Business, a radio show about the entertainment business!

Listen here (my interview starts about 7 minutes in):
http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tb/tb1 ... uthentic_a

Congratulations, Alex.

Congrats on your success, King of Aspies.

Will there be a transcription?

Cool. Pity I was at training.

Thanks for sharing this. Misnomers surrounding autism/AS abound and being misunderstood is so painfully unfair. Honest presentations of autism is a real asset to social media that's long overdue.

There is greater diversity within the autism spectrum than amongst the general population. Further, Asperger's Syndrome presents really differently than classic autism. We can each be so very different that any portrayal cannot possibly represent all. So I really appreciate how hard Alex's job is as a consultant! With these positive strides, I believe that someday we'll not only be better accepted as Aspies, but that our unique differences will be an appreciable asset, shown as believable and interesting film characters.

Alex,
Thank you for your work which supports the rest of us.
Suddenly the outliers found a home...

Fantastic!

And what a plug for Shameful!

I found the audio widgets a little flakey on the iPad so I will have to switch to a laptop to hear the whole thing.

I am happy for you, Alex, that you and your work are getting this exposure. Really--it's an amazing thing that you have done.

I am also happy for me because your work is bringing understanding to this thing which I never understood, but have learned has been central to my life.

What I keep coming back to, if you don't mind my imposing an inspiring moral on your life's story, is that none of this would be happening if a younger Alex had not gone online looking for community and, not finding it, created the thing that he felt should have been there.

Could you have imagined where all this would take you, when you first began to explore building Wrong Planet? Big things have small beginnings. P

The key thing is: you did it.

Started it. Cultivated it. Followed it to great accomplishment. And you are just getting started!

Hail to you, Alex. Your achievement is extraordinary--and a gift to our community.

Thanks, man.

It's a recording on the site: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/tb/tb1 ... uthentic_a

Good job!

you are so awesome!

I don't think so but anyone is free to write one!

Thanks alex. It's great to see all the interesting projects you're working on.

Alex, Have you tried to explain to them that there are autistics with great empathy, aren't geniuses or introverts who say a lot of dumb things? There seems to be too many stereotypes in the media. Also, on the show do they present sensory issues and the agony of many Autistics not being able to connect and being desperately sad and lonely because they so want to connect?

Vicky

Just a thought ... why not simply cast aspies (for these roles) that have had training and experience as actors, instead of trying to teach non-aspies how to convincingly behave like one of us?

Non-aspies have no idea what it is really like to be one of us, so from what resource could they possibly draw their motivation?

Besides a paycheck, I mean ...

Not a proper one, but:
Alex watches lots of TV and has "learned" some behaviours from it. He's had to learn all his social skills. He got called by someone from Autism Speaks and then from the showrunner. He got a free lunch and got asked loads of questions by writers and producers. He had to watch Diane Kruger and tell her when she did things that were not autistic. He told her to stim by playing with a pen and to take instructions literally. It was quite intimidating. They integrated most things that Alex said, which he didn't expect. Alex thinks a lot of actors are autistic because they have to think about how they act. The character is not explicitly called autistic and Alex is glad about that. Alex thinks people get to like autistic people more after getting to know them better.