This is part of an interview with him-

What has been your favourite movie role so far, and why?

This movie I just finished called Mozart And The Whale. I got to play this character who's autistic - he has Asperger's syndrome. It's my favourite because it was really challenging and rewarding. You know, when you get to be a part of a world that you otherwise wouldn't have the chance to learn about, it's rewarding. I spent a lot of time with people who suffer with the syndrome.

How much do you see your role in Mozart And The Whale as a responsibility to a community of under-represented people?

I see it as a huge responsibility, but at the same time I only have a responsibility to the character that I'm playing. You cannot play a syndrome, and anyone who thinks you can is sorely mistaken. You play a character and if you know anything about autism, it's that it's a spectrum disorder and there are as many types of people with autism as there are people without. I just had to be true to the character that I was playing, especially because it's real life. It's based on a true story about a real guy, and I had to make sure that I was diagnosable, you know? I had to make sure I didn't deviate from what is considered Asperger's. But yes, it's a huge responsibility.

What would you say to people who reckon you're trying to pull a Rain Man and bag an Oscar for Mozart And The Whale? Jenny

It's nothing like that. It's written by the same guy who wrote Rain Man, but that's because the guy who it's about wrote to Ron Bass saying how much Rain Man meant to him and how, when he saw it, it changed his life because he didn't know he had autism - he thought he was just eccentric. His life was tearing him apart because he couldn't understand why he couldn't relate to someone and he was angry and feeling like he wasn't going to make it much longer. Then when he saw Rain Man it struck a chord with him and he went to a doctor and got diagnosed. Anyway, if people want to say that I'm doing this just to get some sort of award out of the deal, then that's a very, very... quite a cynical view. I already got out of it everything that I wanted to get out of it and I met some of the coolest people that I know through making that film. So whatever.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/webaccess/jos...tt_1.shtml

Marketing initiatives, advance publicity and actor interviews  for films yet to be released tell us little about the quality of a film, but they do tell us who the target consumers are intended to be.

Stella

The last paragraph in the quote from Josh is inaccurate and I have corrected him on Ron Bass's spin of how MATW originated. I haven't seen Josh say that since.  I also don't describe myself as "suffering" from AS. But Josh, Radha, other cast members etc spent time with a LOT of our peers. There are some who do feel that way. The movie presents a spectrum of opinion.

        As for its quality, having seen most autism movies and having a brother who was production designer of two of the better ones, I am confident about the quality of this one.  

                                  Jerry

I am looking forward to watching it.

From a person currently working for an A2 Film Studies level it sounds interesting.

Incidentally you might just want to check this years Oscar nominations especially the Best Documentary, Short Subjects one.

I hear "The Passion" got shut out of the major nominations but that's Hollywood, bigoted as ever.

                           Jerry

How is it bigotry? That movie SUCKED.

Your minority opinion. That movie was loved by millions. But the obvious truth that Hollywood can't tolerate a good movie about Christianity or fiscally back it. Not hard to imagine why.

        OTOH, "Schindler's List" and any other movie that serves the purpose of american zionism (paralyze the goyim with holocaust guilt so they keep supporting Israel) gets Hollywood money and a fast track to the Oscars.

                     That is BIGOTRY and RACISM.

                                Jerry Newport

I'm looking forward to seeing the film as well. If the DVD ever comes out, I'll be lying in front of the doorstep at the record store the morning it comes in!

Unfortunately there isn't much news from Milennium Films as on their websites. IMDB doesn't help there either, although the shooting is completed but that's about everything I know. If anyone has more news on the release of the film (Mid-February?), just drop a line!

And Jerry: Got a good point there!

I certainly felt that way when Feirhenheight 9/11 won the "so called" people's choice award.  That was totally bogus, it was like number 17 in box office, it was not really even a movie that it should have been in the catagory in the first place, there was no way I could ever believe it would beat Shrek 2 and Spiderman 2 (let alone the other dozen movies ahead of Moore's whatever he put on celluloid).  After seeing that I knew for a fact that it was not the people's choice.  I wonder who these people are.  Most Americans voted for Bush and many more saw the other 16 films in greater numbers than that of Moore.  This was so obviously fixed.  I have not seen fix this obvious since the last Don King arranged fight.  

Incididentally, are there many movies about or with autism or aspergers, good or decent, out in circulation?

I have only ones I heard of are Rainman, this latest short film Autism is a world, Mozart and the whale (not yet released), Mercury Rising, possibly Shine (David Helfgott story).
I think there are made-for-tv movies too.

If they are good or decent is personal choice I suppose.

I thought Shine was about schizophrenia rather than autism.

I thought that was a Beautiful Mind?

Nash, in A Beautiful Mind, and Helfgott, in Shine,  both presented as schizophrenic.

And we're stuck with Dustbin Hoffman as  Rain Man and The Cetacean Amadeus!

Stella  :roll:

I thought that they never specified what condition Helfgott had, and that it could be autism?