The Brady Bunch of Autism
Join Navah and Matt Asner as they discuss topics relating to the world of autism and family. Navah and Matt have six children. 3 who are autistic. They are the founders of the Ed Asner Family Center. A center that provides arts and vocational enrichments and counseling services and support groups to special needs individuals and their families.
The Brady Bunch of Autism
Target Talk: Celebrating Autistic Voices at the Ed Asner Family Center
What makes an autism portrayal authentic and meaningful? Matt and Navah Asner dive into this compelling question while highlighting their favorite performances that got it right. From the groundbreaking ensemble cast of "As We See It" to Diane Kruger's nuanced character in "The Bridge," we explore what makes these portrayals resonate with both autistic and neurotypical viewers.
The conversation tackles the ongoing debate about whether autistic characters should exclusively be played by autistic actors. While recognizing the importance of opportunity for autistic performers, Matt and Navah offer thoughtful perspectives on the nature of acting and representation in entertainment. This discussion reveals how complex the question of authentic portrayal truly is in an industry built on imagination.
A highlight of this episode is the debut of "Target Talk," a podcast created by Ed Asner Family Center Academy participant Zoey Frankel. This charming conversation between Zoey and her friend Peter about shopping preferences at Target showcases the incredible talent and personality of our Academy participants. It's a testament to how the Center's Podcasting 101 program helps build confidence and communication skills.
With World Autism Acceptance Month underway, Matt and Navah also reflect on the sometimes divisive nature of autism advocacy. They make a heartfelt plea for unity, encouraging everyone to "listen more and judge less" while appreciating each person's unique journey. This message of compassion extends beyond April, reinforcing their belief that "every day is Autism Acceptance Day."
Don't miss our upcoming events! Join our Funko auction on May 8th featuring items signed by celebrities like Ben Stiller and Keanu Reeves, then mark your calendar for the 13th annual Ed Asner Celebrity Poker Tournament on June 14th. With tickets starting at just $100, it's your chance to play alongside celebrities while supporting our mission.
www.teafc.org From Our Family To Yours
Welcome to the Brady Bunch of Autism, your source for family parenting and all things. Autism and special needs created by our family for your family live from the Ed Asner Family Center and now your hosts, Nava and Matt Asner.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Brady Bunch of Autism. I'm Matt Asner.
Speaker 1:And I'm Nava Pasquitz Asner.
Speaker 2:And we're coming to you from the Ed Asner Family Center here in Van Nuys, California. How are you?
Speaker 1:How are you?
Speaker 2:Matt, I'm good. This is episode number five.
Speaker 1:Already Episode number five. Wow, that's hard to believe.
Speaker 2:It is hard to believe. And what are we going to talk about today? We've got some fun stuff today. We're going to talk about the best autism performances in entertainment, so we're going to talk about that.
Speaker 1:Well, it is still World Autism Acceptance.
Speaker 2:Month. It is still World Autism Acceptance Month. It is still World Autism Acceptance Month, and that is why we're going to do this, because we want to see what you're thinking. I want to see what you're thinking. You want to see what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:Well, I already know what you're thinking at all times.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay. Well, we'll have to wait and see what happens there. We're going to do that and then we're going to have a special podcast special. This is going to be a new segment that we're going to do pretty much in every episode. We do Podcasting 101 here at the Ed Esner Family Center Academy and we're going to turn the reins over. We're going to turn the microphone over to our participants.
Speaker 1:And if you don't know what the Ed Asner Family Center Academy is, we have worked very hard to create a very unusual, unique job training day program and it's been very successful, and one of our most popular electives is this podcasting class.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we've actually heard all of the podcasts and they're actually just wonderful.
Speaker 4:They are.
Speaker 2:So you guys are going to love them and that'll be fun. What's going on around the center?
Speaker 1:Well, we just wrapped up our second, not our second our fourth semester of the Academy and Aviva, our program director. She blew us away with the most incredible showcase and our end of semester showcase really, really was emotional and beautiful and the parents really saw the hard work that our participants have put into, not just in their life skills and job training and you know the job component of it but also in elements of creativity. They had the most incredible voiceover class. The podcast class was introduced and we saw snippets. Parents were able to see snippets from some of the podcasts that we're going to hear today.
Speaker 1:The art gallery was unlike anything I've ever seen and if you want to see some of these images, you can check out our social medias, because we put a lot of the pictures up on social media at Asner Family Center, on Instagram, and they're just incredible. And everyone was so emotional I mean I was bawling my eyes out at the end of the night because I knew how much work everyone put into it and it was just beautiful. It was just beautiful. It was just beautiful it was.
Speaker 2:It was a nice evening, and aviva.
Speaker 1:Aviva and her two little brothers are still in japan that they went for their birthday. They've been saving up for three years for this big, uh, uh, crazy trip that they were taking for aviva's birthday and, um, they're just having the times of their life. But I think they worked up until that day and she probably you know 19 hour flight. She probably just slept for the entire entirety of the flight. So you deserve it, aviva.
Speaker 2:You deserve it. So let's talk a little bit about autistic representation. Ok, so Nav and I were talking the other day and we were thinking about autistic representation. Okay, so Nava and I were talking the other day and we were thinking like, what is the best performance by either an autistic or non-autistic performer that you know portrays autism? So I'm going to let Nava go first. What do you think?
Speaker 1:Well, I think.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about the wide array of roles out there.
Speaker 1:I think first you have to preface that with some of the controversy in that statement. Yes, anything that is connected to somebody who is autistic or being represented as an autistic person should only have an autistic person being in that role and in entertainment. This is make-believe. This is a fantasy. This is not a documentary. I think it's unrealistic to always say that there is going to be an autistic person who can be in every role, like that. So I think we have to like just be a little more realistic when it comes to Hollywood, because that's what it is. It's Hollywood.
Speaker 2:Well see, I'll take it even further and I'm going to get in trouble here.
Speaker 1:I like getting in trouble.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I mean, I see both points. I certainly see an autistic actor wanting to play a role that has an autistic situation in it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Right Opportunity.
Speaker 2:I understand that it's an opportunity, but I also think that actor should be able to play whatever role he wants.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And I think that if there's an audition, the audition should be open to all actors, not just autistic actors, and I think I would think that everyone would want that that way.
Speaker 1:Well, and I mean, if they have an audition for professional surfers and you audition for that, yeah, no matter what you did you wouldn. You auditioned for that? Yeah, no matter what you did you, you wouldn't be appropriate for that role I wouldn't be so.
Speaker 2:I I think, even though they should have the same opportunity, I play it. I played a surfer once in in a, in a show that I did that's very hard for me to believe I'm not a surfer. I play on TV.
Speaker 1:So let's get back to it. Who do you want to go first?
Speaker 2:No, you go first. You want me to go first. I want you to go first.
Speaker 1:Well, I kind of have a tie, because I absolutely fell in love with Dakota Fanning in yes, I forgot the name of the movie.
Speaker 2:It's like, wasn't it like? It was specific to Star Wars Star.
Speaker 1:Trek. She was obsessed with Star Trek, my second favorite. I'm going to look that up. Why say my second?
Speaker 2:favorite. I want to say it was Beam Me Up, but it's not, it's not.
Speaker 1:But my second favorite was the Bridge.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And I'm forgetting her name too, this is my old. That would be um diane kruger diane kruger, I thought she was, and they never say. They never say that she's um autistic. They never use that term, but it's very obvious um that she's autistic.
Speaker 2:I have two.
Speaker 1:Well, the Dakota Fanning movie is called. Please Stand.
Speaker 2:By, please Stand by. So if you haven't seen that, definitely see that. Very good film.
Speaker 1:Diane Kruger in the Bridge to me was incredible. I mean that was one of my favorite series because I love anything. Serial killer, you know genre, genre, but Please Stand by. I thought was incredible. I want Eddie to see that because it's so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, that would be a really good thing for him to see, because Eddie is a huge Star Trek fan, right, my, my favorites are I've got two that I'll mention are I've got two that I'll mention Um, there were a lot out there actually, uh and uh, I think, um, I think there've been a lot of. There's been a lot of good representation on film um, for autism. Um, I think, um, I think the show, as we see it as a collective, was probably one of the best representations of autism I've ever seen.
Speaker 1:I can't believe I didn't mention that because Sue Ann is one of my favorite friends.
Speaker 2:And I think they they got it right. And, of course, I think the majority of characters are played by autistic actors as well. So there you go right there, by autistic actors as well. So there you go right there. I think that show probably was the best show I've ever seen in terms of autistic representation. It was just a dream come true. And Jason Kadams was the creator of that show. He went beyond, you know, he went way beyond in creating that show and casting it with the people he casted with and it had some pretty serious.
Speaker 2:You know, rick Glassman, there were some serious elements to it, I mean they really got into some heavy subjects and they did it so sensitive, sensitive sensitively, sensitively, um, but it was, it was a fantastic show, a fantastic show. I love it.
Speaker 1:I absolutely love it, and so many of our friends worked on it Um, if you haven't seen that. What? Where can people watch?
Speaker 2:I guess, it's on Amazon still, cause it was an. It was an Amazon show Um an amazon show, but that show um. I highly recommend that show and so does namba I'm sure, absolutely um, and I have to say that I think, on film, um, my, uh, it wasn't on film, actually, it was a tv show. Um, my, my favorite performance, I think, is diane kruger and the bridge.
Speaker 1:Ooh.
Speaker 2:I think she got it so right, and I have to mention our friend Alex Plank, who was the consultant on that show.
Speaker 1:He had some on-air time too.
Speaker 2:And he had some acting stuff on that show too, so did acting uh stuff on that show too, but so he was. He was the consultant on that show and he, um, I think, and he worked very closely with diane kruger johnny. Uh, johnny dowers is on the show as well um, that show to me, first of all, it's just a great show, uh, highly dramatic unbelievable, very, if you like, serial killers stuff Very violent show but really really well done, very cinematic.
Speaker 2:But Diane Kruger's performance they never like Nava said. They never actually say that she's autistic, but you know she is.
Speaker 1:Actually, I think at one point her friend, the older cop, who was friends with her dad, the guy that was Buffalo Bill, we'll have to ask Wasn't he Buffalo Bill? No, no, no, there was the older cop who was like her mentor. I think he. I'm just going to spoiler alert.
Speaker 2:But wasn't the guy, wasn't the guy? Wasn't he the guy in Silence of the Lambs?
Speaker 1:I don't think so.
Speaker 2:Pretty sure he was.
Speaker 1:No, the older cop who plays her mentor, yeah.
Speaker 2:He was the guy from Silence of the Lambs. Definitely not. I think you should look it up.
Speaker 1:I think you should bet me right now $1,000.
Speaker 2:I'm going to bet you $1,000. You're all witnesses On camera.
Speaker 1:You're all witnesses. We're talking about two different people. I'm talking about the tall, tall, big guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, who's her mentor? The sheriff? No, who are you talking about?
Speaker 1:We're talking about two different people.
Speaker 2:I guess. So we're going to have to do our research and let you guys know what we find out. What are some other shows that you think?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I loved Parenthood. It's an oldie but a goodie.
Speaker 2:I thought Parenthood was really, really wonderful and I loved Parenthood. It's an oldie but a goodie. Oh, max, I thought.
Speaker 1:Parenthood was really really wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they did a and I loved. Actually, parenthood had one of the scenes that I think is the best scene about autism that I've ever seen. It was a scene between Peter Krause and Max, between Peter Krause and Max, where the kid is kind of explaining what's going on and he asks the dad a question. And it was that kind of autistic moment where the parent realizes that he's so ill-equipped to deal with this and to talk one-on-one with his son about it because he doesn't really understand it. So, yeah, so those are the, those are the shows that we, that we we recommend we haven't seen unbreakable boy yet no, haven't seen that.
Speaker 1:You know, I actually know the guy that did that and we are gonna see the accountant, part 2, which I'm very excited about.
Speaker 2:I'm actually the accountant was a great film and I thought Ben did a great job at showing that presenting that he was the recipient of an award at Outfest, which was a film festival that I organized when I was with Autism Society, and we honored Ben for his work in the Accountant and he was wonderful in that.
Speaker 1:He was really wonderful, in that I agree. So what do we have coming up as far as Ben?
Speaker 2:Well, we have a really important event coming up on June 14th. We have two things coming up actually. We have a Funko auction that we're doing on May 8th that you can join whatnot and take part in signed Funkos and take part in signed Funkos. It's a lot of fun. Buy people like Ben Stiller, keanu Reeves, boy the list goes on. It's just incredible.
Speaker 1:I think, in order to make it easier, though, you should get the Whatnot app. Yes, because then it's much easier to see the bidding. It's much easier to, because I went on Whatnot on the browser before, so make sure that you download your Whatnot app before the auction. It makes it much easier.
Speaker 2:Okay, and then on June 14th we have one of our big fundraisers of the year is the Ed Asner and Friends Celebrity Poker Tournament, and it's the 13th year we've done this.
Speaker 1:Lucky 13.
Speaker 2:13 of them. That's crazy, isn't that wild?
Speaker 2:We've done it for 13 years and it's a great event. We have about 50 celebrities that come. Everyone sits at a table. There's 20 tables, so you're basically guaranteed to sit with a celebrity and that takes place on June 14th at 5 o'clock at Radford Studios in Studio City and you can. If you want to look for tickets for that, they're available and they're available at teafcorg T-E-A-F-C dot org and you just find it on the on the page. It'll be there. It's amazing. It's just a great event.
Speaker 1:And the thing that's so special about this event it's very intimate. The celebrities kind of leave their ego at the door and they just bro down with everyone. They're so down to earth, so nice, they're all friends with Ed and they're doing this out of the goodness of their hearts and you really can see the difference. One thing that we're doing this year because so many people are struggling, so many people are affected by the fires, so many people are just having a hard time, and we've lowered our prices for entry considerably by a third. So if you have not bought a ticket yet, you should go right now and buy a ticket, because it will be sold out very quickly. At this price, A non-player ticket which a lot of us are is $100. And a couple of drinks is $100 nowadays.
Speaker 1:So open bar the most incredible food from Ma's Kitchen and in fact, we are honoring Ma this year.
Speaker 2:We're honoring the owner, Michelle.
Speaker 1:The most amazing guy who is so incredibly um generous to the center, um he's helped so many special needs organizations, michelle that's good. Okay, I'll buy that um but yeah, so that's, that's uh. J June 14th, which happens to be my birthday, but nobody cares we do this every year on my birthday.
Speaker 2:But yeah, buy a ticket today or you are going to miss out and you'll be very, very sad and I'll just say some of the celebrities that we've had in the past are Ben Affleck, jack Black, gene Smart, gene Smart, ben Affleck.
Speaker 1:Jack Black, gene Smart.
Speaker 2:Gene Smart, ron Funches, dylan McDermott, michael McKean.
Speaker 1:Gregory Harrison.
Speaker 2:Gregory Harrison.
Speaker 1:There's too many to count. I mean there's a lot right? Nobody wants to.
Speaker 2:Callum Worthy. He was there last year, you know. It's just a ton of wonderful people that show up because they want to. They want to show up for the cause. So join us at Radford Studios on June 14th. Once again, you get tickets at teafcorg and buy your tickets. The tickets are limited, so they're limited. So now, now we're going to shift gears and we're going to go into the world of Zoe. Zoe Frankel is a participant at the Ed Asner Family Center Academy and she is also a member of podcasting 101 Academy class and she has created a podcast for you guys to listen to. We're going to turn the reins over to Zoe and Peter. Enjoy this, and we'll come back and say goodbye at the end of that wonderful journey. Right, ladies and gentlemen? Zoe Franco.
Speaker 3:Hi, my name is Zoe and you're listening to Target Talk. I am interviewing my friend, peter, today and we would like, while we shopping at Target Target has a lot of cool things to buy, right, peter?
Speaker 4:Well, first of all, zoe, thank you so much for inviting me to your show. It's an honor to be here and, yes, target, it is the best place to shop. I love Target.
Speaker 3:What do you like to get at Target?
Speaker 4:Well, it depends. It depends on what I'm there for. It could be household items, clothes, school supplies, so whatever I need at the house, it depends on the day. What about you?
Speaker 3:Shoes, earrings, makeup, music, everything, everything. Yeah, do you like to buy shoes at Target? What shoes have you bought from there?
Speaker 4:I haven't bought any shoes at Target, but I have bought a couple of sandals there and their sandals. They have a variety of different sandals there and they're very cheap too, so I like the fact that they're cheap. But shoes I've never bought shoes from Target.
Speaker 3:Oh my, what about you? I bought some flats. I like the flats.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they do have a bunch of different styles of shoes at Target. I like the variety there.
Speaker 3:Cool. Do you like to buy video games at Target? What's a game you bought while you were shopping there?
Speaker 4:I love good question because I do love buying video games at Target, mostly when they're on sale. I try to wait for the sales, mostly when they have good sales on video games. That's when I do all my video game shopping there. Preferably I'll buy mostly sports games. I'll play NFL, hockey, soccer, Every once in a while a fighting game or a one-player game, but I usually wait. Like I said, I usually wait until they have sales on video games to purchase all my video games there. Do you play any video games at home?
Speaker 3:No, I don't play video games. Do you play any video games at all on your phone or anything? No, I don't play video games.
Speaker 4:Do you play any video games at all on your phone or anything?
Speaker 3:No, I don't play video games at all. What type of music do you like?
Speaker 4:I love heavy metal and rock and roll music so I grew up on that, and some Spanish music. I grew up in a very Hispanic household so my mom introduced me to a lot some Spanish music. I grew up in a very Hispanic household so my mom introduced me to a lot of Spanish music. But mostly I love listening to heavy metal music.
Speaker 3:That's cool, yeah, what?
Speaker 4:about you. What's your favorite type of music?
Speaker 3:I like a little rock. I like a little heavy metal, I like, but mostly I'm into pop.
Speaker 4:Who's your favorite pop artist?
Speaker 3:Gracie Abrams.
Speaker 4:I don't think I've ever heard of her.
Speaker 3:She's very popular.
Speaker 4:She is. What kind of music does she play?
Speaker 3:She plays like pop, she's pop and stuff and she's very pretty.
Speaker 4:Okay, I'll definitely have to check her out, but I do love some pop music.
Speaker 3:Who's your favorite heavy metal artist?
Speaker 4:Ooh, I have two artists that I love. There's a band called Slayer they're from right here in Los Angeles, and Mastodon, they're from Atlanta, georgia.
Speaker 3:Don't know who they are. Have you ever bought any CDs at Target?
Speaker 4:I have bought CDs and vinyls. They don't have a lot of variety there when it comes to CDs and vinyls, but every once in a while I'll find a little CD or vinyl that I like from one of my favorite artists. Actually, when it comes to CD, my go-to place is to go to Amoeba. Have you ever been to Amoeba? Yes, I have. Yeah, that's like. If you like music, definitely I recommend going to Amoeba.
Speaker 3:That's cool. I bought a couple CDs.
Speaker 4:What kind of CDs did you buy?
Speaker 3:I bought. The first CD I got was the Wicked CD.
Speaker 4:Ooh Wicked.
Speaker 3:I listen to it all the time on my Apple Music.
Speaker 4:I just recently saw well, I saw a couple weeks ago the Wicked movie. Surprisingly, I liked it a lot.
Speaker 3:Did you enjoy it?
Speaker 4:I did enjoy it, actually because I'm not a fan of musical, so anything musical I'm not a fan of. But I went saw it and surprisingly I enjoyed it a lot.
Speaker 3:Nice, what is your favorite food to get from Target?
Speaker 4:Favorite food. I mostly get snacks from Target like chips, cookies, candy stuff like that. Get like chips, cookies, candy stuff like that. Um, every once in a while I'll get a, you know, like vegetables or fruit, but um, but most of most of the time is always like snacks. Quick, like snacks. What about you?
Speaker 3:um pizza and just anything I like like frozen pizza from their frozen section yeah what kind of frozen pizza?
Speaker 4:Cheese, cheese Nice.
Speaker 3:Do you like to cook? What is your favorite thing to cook?
Speaker 4:I cook spaghetti. I love to cook spaghetti. It's the one thing I was able to masterize. But I try to look up videos, try different cooking techniques, methods and to try to come up with different meals every day. But spaghetti, meat sauce, spaghetti is my number one go-to whenever I'm like craving it me too yeah, you love. I know you love pasta yeah you like spicy?
Speaker 3:do you like your food spicy?
Speaker 4:oh, I love spicy. Not so much now because I am getting a little bit older so my body doesn't take it in so well. But when I was younger, yeah, the hotter the better for me. Now I try to like manage the level of spiciness that I intake. But I love spicy. That's good. Yeah, what about you?
Speaker 3:Love it, love it, love it a lot, I know.
Speaker 4:I see you every day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, it was great having you. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure being here, Zoe.
Speaker 1:Okay, that was incredible and funny. I'm telling you my favorite part of that. My favorite part is Peter saying oh yeah, I like buying. I like buying video games. I love video games. Do you like video games? No, I don't like video games yeah, yeah, Well, do you like to play any? No, I don't play video games at all.
Speaker 2:It's like the deadpan answer. That's hysterical and that's something you'll hear in all of these podcasts. You'll hear the real personalities of these wonderful people and they're incredible all of them. And that was the first one. Well, actually, the first one was Maggie, last week.
Speaker 1:But the journey that they've gone on and some of our participants were extremely shy, extremely anxiety-ridden about speaking on the microphone and I won't tell you which ones, because you won't even notice, because they're all so spectacular but I just was blown away with the arc of confidence that they created, going through this process with the incredible instructor, max, and just getting so comfortable they're so comfortable with the staff that they are able to do these interviews with them and it just I was blown away and I know you guys are going to love this new segment in the Brady Bunch of Autism and we just want to thank you for joining us today. And we just want to thank you for joining us today. Happy World Autism Acceptance Month, and I think when we see you again it might be over.
Speaker 2:No, we'll have one more.
Speaker 1:No One more Can't be. Every day is Autism Acceptance Day. To us, it is Every day. That's what I say every year, every year I do a post and I say I want credit for that. Saying no, you can't have credit for that saying.
Speaker 2:I do a post every year and I say every day is Autism Acceptance Day.
Speaker 1:It is, it should be, because it's part of our lives.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know honestly, it's a part of everyone's lives.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I hope and I pray, just like the Middle East, that my friends who are my actual autistics and my friends who are the, you know, very passionate moms can come together and really hear each other and not judge so much, because I think we need to connect and be um more less divisive in our community, and I I hope to be a part of helping.
Speaker 2:Well.
Speaker 1:To bring these two communities together. Yeah, but there's still a lot of I think you are a part of that. There's still a lot of arguing, I think we have to keep reminding ourselves.
Speaker 2:When you're out there talking to people and when you're out there listening to people, realize that you know we all are living our righteous paths, and you know our path is righteous, living our righteous paths. And and you know our path is righteous, and um, and we have to treat other people the same. You know just, we have to appreciate their lives as much as we appreciate our own lives. And, uh, each person is going through their own thing, uh, and you know what stuff that I'm going through is difficult, stuff that other people are going through is difficult, and and uh, and I think we just have to understand each other and kind of move forward together and hope for the best for everyone.
Speaker 1:Well, I always say listening more and judging less.
Speaker 2:Yes. And with that Good policy.
Speaker 1:Thank you all so much for joining us, the Brady Bunch of Autism. We come into your homes or your cars, your bedrooms, every other Thursday, and thank you for joining us and have a wonderful week until we see you again. Shalom aloha everyone.
Speaker 2:Take care of yourselves. Bye-bye ©. Transcript Emily Beynon.
