What to Know
During an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, actor Brendan Fraser spoke about Saving Superman, a short film he executive produced. Their conversation made it clear that for Brendan, the project is personal. As he discussed his reasons for working on the short film, he mentioned his eldest son, Griffin.
Saving Superman tells the true story of Jonathan, a middle aged man with autism. Brendan explained, “Each summer he wears his Superman costume, and he knows everything about Superman. His housing was being compromised. He was effectively not allowed to live in his apartment anymore. So he had friends, and the whole town rallied around him to support him having a lodging, a home.”
Brendan got emotional as he spoke about it.
Explaining why he started tearing up as he spoke, Brendan said, “I’m the dad of a son with special needs. I want to be a part of it for that reason. Because we need to do well by everyone who has a family on the spectrum. We need more services available to them. And I do know that he’s the hero that we need right now.”
Starting to cry herself, Kelly leaned in to hug Brendan and said, “Now I can’t wait to see it.”
He has previously opened up about his son’s autism diagnosis.
Brendan has three children. His 23-year-old son Griffin was diagnosed with autism “at 22 or 24 months,” he previously told Howard Stern. At first, Brendan “was crestfallen, to say the least” when he learned of Griffin’s diagnosis. “The first reaction that I had was, ‘I want to know how to fix this. What’s the cure? What does this mean?'” he said.
But then he went on to describe how his perspective changed. “Then you learn quickly that, I wouldn’t have any other way,” he continued. “This kid has the most joy onboard of anyone I know, and he happens to be related to me as my son. I want to know what he thinks is so gut-bustingly funny all day long, in a genuine way, he’s cracking himself up.”
He also acknowledged that advocating for your child can be challenging at times. “You will have to fight with school boards,” he said. “Yes, there will be weird people that you meet along the way that have a completely different agenda compared to what the purpose of sending a kid to a special needs school is. You’re going to encounter a lot of really colorful people, and how you navigate that comes down to how much you know that everything’s going to be OK.”
