A divorced stand-up comedian embarks on a life-changing journey with his autistic son in Director Tony Goldwyn’s comedic drama, Ezra.
Goldwyn’s film tells the story of Max Bernal, who struggles to raise his autistic son, Ezra. Forced to confront difficult decisions about the boy’s future, Max and Ezra embark on a cross-country road trip that has a transcendent impact on them both.
On June 22, after the DGA membership screening in New York, Goldwyn discussed the making of Ezra during a Q&A moderated by Director Michael Pressman (Frankie and Johnny Are Married).
During the conversation, Goldwyn spoke about casting and directing actor William Fitzgerald for the title role.
“We knew we were going to cast an autistic actor to play Ezra. There was no way we were going to cast a neurotypical actor to play that kid. Our casting directors reached out into autism theater groups for kids, Facebook groups, community groups, just all different kinds of things all around the country and we saw maybe 100 young autistic actors and we couldn't find him. We saw some amazing young men, but it wasn't Ezra. About three weeks before filming I said ‘we cannot cast a kid who's not the kid. That's not going to work.’ I know with casting it's a weird alchemy and you have to have patience. Sure enough the day after I said we have to keep looking this audition tape came in. I saw him and he literally was like Dimitri, the character the movie’s based on. He was very comfortable being in his own skin – which is the thing you pray for with an actor – and just a natural. We talked a lot with William’s parents about the accommodations we would need to make for certain sensitivities he has as a kid on the spectrum and once we had those kind of dialed in it was just like working with any brilliant child actor. Always with good actors, but certainly with children, as a Director you have to be very clear and precise and simple in what you say because I'd start to talk and overly explain something and within 10 seconds William’s eyes would be rolling into the back of his head or he just walk away or something. And he'd say, ‘Yeah Tony, I got it. Let me just do it.’ I kind of realized I had to let him do his thing and he just knew what he was doing.”
Goldwyn also shared the importance of gaining an actor’s trust by recalling a scene De Niro wanted to redo and his decision to accommodate that despite the boundaries of time and budget.
“I find with actors, if they want to try something, you always say yes. There's always time to do that no matter how tight your schedule is. Time is a weird thing and if you resist that because you're worried about time, you're going to be there twice as long.”
Goldwyn’s other directorial credits include the feature films Conviction, The Last Kiss and Someone Like You; and episodes of Chambers, Scandal, The Divide, Justified, Damages, Dirty Sexy Money, Dexter, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order, The L Word and Without a Trace. He has been a DGA member since 2000.