Autism News: Film Director Janet Grillo Brings Autism To The Screen

Film director Janet Grillo brings the reality of autism to her movie "Jack of the Red Hearts."

Usually, when characters with autism are presented on TV or in a movie, they all fit a certain type. They are socially odd but intelligent and highly gifted, according to film director Janet Grillo, cited by Fox News. They usually will go work in Silicon Valley no matter what happens and "they will be just fine."

The film director is also a film professor at NYU and lives in New York. Janet Grillo is herself a parent of a son with autism and she knows very well that this depiction of autism disorder is far from reality. The truth is that most of the people suffering of autism spectrum disorders are not even able to live independently and many are functionally nonverbal, says Grillo.

Grillo's son with her ex-husband, director David O. Russell, is now 22 years old and he residing in New York in an assisted-independent living program. He was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when he was aged just two years old.

According to Grillo, her son is not like the nonverbal child in her movie "Jack of the Red Hearts." But even if her son is just mildly impacted, his independence is still hard-won. After two decades of intensive therapy, her son is hardly adapting to go on to find a mostly independent life and it is most likely that he's still going to need services and support, Grillo added.

Grillo's movie "Jack of the Red Hearts" is about the unusual case of a girl with autism, according to The Mighty. Girls are five times less likely as boys to be diagnosed as autistic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Glory (Taylor Richardson), the film's main character, is an 11-year-old with severe autism. Much to the alarm of Glory's parents (Famke Janssen and Scott Cohen), her caretaker (Anna Sophia Robb of "The Carrie Diaries") turns out to be a dangerous teenage.