From
Variety:
Humor was used onscreen and off at April 2 preem of
Gravitas Ventures’ “The Story of Luke” at the Laemmle Music Hall in
Beverly Hills, where thespians and creatives took a light-hearted approach
to the serious topic of autism.
“I wanted something entertaining that’s not too heavy so the movie has comedic and romantic elements,” said scribe-helmer Alonso Mayo.
“Too many movies have the hard drama on this topic and are very
depressing. In my experience, I saw a lot of hope, laughter and
happiness. I wanted people to see a side they haven’t seen before. It’s
not just something to be scared about.”
Even though Lou Taylor Pucci’s character shares the same disorder as Dustin Hoffman’s in “Rain Man,” Pucci took a different approach.
“The generalities are all there,” he explained,
“their inability to focus, their repetition of ritual. But I needed to
create a totally fictional character out of nowhere. What it ended up
being was a morph of four different families with an autism member I had
met who helped create somebody just for me to play.”
Seth Green’s character is also autistic. With one arm wrapped around wife Clare Grant and a bag of Sour Patch Kids in the other, the actor explained his approach.
“I like to play things really straight on and pretty
honestly and humor naturally comes out of that,” said Green. “So I try
not to go for any laughs or make anything seem forced.”
