‘Ezra’ Movie Sees Actor With Autism Shine With Bobby Cannavale, Robert De Niro

ISELIN, New Jersey – The makers of the new movie “Ezra” had Bobby Cannavale and Robert De Niro.

They also featured Rose Byrne, Vera Farmiga, Whoopi Goldberg and Rainn Wilson.

But with three weeks left before filming began, they didn’t have Ezra.

“We were pretty nervous because without Ezra we didn’t have a movie,” director Tony Goldwyn (“Scandal”) tells NJ Advance Media.

It wasn’t for lack of trying.

They had conducted a nationwide search for young actors on the autism spectrum to play Cannavale’s high school son and De Niro’s grandson in the comedy-drama.

They reviewed hundreds of recorded auditions and flew actors to New York to work with Cannavale.

“We saw some amazing kids,” Goldwyn says.

Still, no Ezra.

Then along came a tape from New Jersey actor William A. Fitzgerald.

“It was immediately apparent that he was special,” Goldwyn says.

Fitzgerald makes his brilliant film debut in “Ezra,” which opened in theaters May 31.

The film is about the relationship between Max Bernal, a comedian from Jersey (Cannavale), and his son Ezra, who has autism.

Natural talent flourishes

Fitzgerald’s audition completed the picture.

When they saw it in person, it seemed to fit the inspiration of the script perfectly.

“Ezra” writer and producer Tony Spiridakis based the story on his relationship with his son Dimitri, who has autism.

“When I met William, he was the spitting image of Dimitri Spiridakis at 12,” says Goldwyn, who has been a friend of the writer for 40 years.

He also discovered that Fitzgerald, who lives in Montclair and had never appeared in a film before, seemed to have an innate sense for acting.

“He had so much freedom and ability to be himself in front of the camera,” says the director. “He just accepts who he is and that’s what we needed for Ezra.”

When Cannavale (“The Watcher,” “The Station Agent,” “Boardwalk Empire”) greeted his future son, the actors instantly clicked.

“From the moment she met William, they just clicked,” Goldwyn, 64, says.

Fitzgerald describes Cannavale, a father of three who grew up in Union City, as “welcoming and welcoming.”

“He’s a huge teddy bear,” he tells NJ Advance Media.

Fitzgerald says he has ADHD and level 1 autism. He is now 15 years old and was cast in “Ezra” when he was 13.

The film was filmed in Hoboken and Jersey City, among other Jersey locations, but some of Fitzgerald’s favorite memories from making the film are scenes set at the Comedy Cellar in New York.

In the story, Max performs at the Cellar as a tryout for a spot on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” He brings along Ezra, who often shouts jokes like an interlocutor.

“Every new take, they had this blonde comedian try the new joke,” Fitzgerald says. “And even though I was supposed to laugh at the script, I actually laughed out loud, like it was real.”

Goldwyn says Fitzgerald improvised on set every day.

A memorable phrase that appeared in the young actor’s head made it into the film. He arrives during a scene on a farm where Farmiga’s character, Grace, lives.

Fitzgerald knew that Farmiga, who grew up in Irvington, Newark and Hunterdon County, stars in “The Conjuring” movies. So he thought it would be funny for Ezra to say that Grace’s house looks like “a demon movie waiting to happen.”

It looks like he might have a career as a screenwriter, too, because that line has gotten a lot of laughs since the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.

Spiridakis says he also saw Dimitri in Fitzgerald’s sense of humor.

“He would say the funniest things that seemed to come out of nowhere and work like magic on people,” she says of her son. “A lot of times that got him into trouble, but a lot of times it was his superpower.”

A “deeply personal” film

Fitzgerald became interested in film acting after watching the YouTubers he followed make small film cameos.

“I thought maybe I could do that,” he says, since he wanted to start his own YouTube channel.

Watching it with Cannavale, it’s clear that the “maybe” became a resounding yes.

In “Ezra,” Max’s bond with his son is close, and the two actors create a believable on-screen relationship, part father and son, part comedian friends.

That bond, and the comedy that accompanies it, coexist with a strong conflict in the film.

Ezra is forced to change schools after an incident in which he takes 20 of his classmates to Washington Street in Hoboken.

Max and his ex-Hoboken wife, Jenna, played by Byrne, Cannavale’s real-life partner, are Ezra’s co-parents. They disagree about what to do after he is involved in a second dangerous incident. They are told they should put him on medication and enroll him in a new school.

But Max, who is trying to establish himself in his comedy career while living in Jersey City Heights with his father Stan (De Niro), rejects those plans.

When Max becomes violent toward an authority figure overseeing Ezra’s care, he faces repercussions that include the possibility of not seeing his son.

Despite all this, he decides to take Ezra on a trip, making the film a kind of road movie.

When Spiridakis and Goldwyn brought the project to De Niro, the Oscar winner was interested in the story because of his experience with his son, who has autism. De Niro, who became executive producer alongside Goldwyn, Spiridakis and Cannavale, worked on refining the script and committed to the role of Stan.

In “Ezra,” which was originally titled “Inappropriate Behavior,” Spiridakis wrote about what he knew from raising Dimitri, who is now an adult.

He also wanted to explore how being a parent of a child with autism made him reflect on his own behavior.

This can be seen in the way Stan and Max begin to talk about the history of their father-son relationship. Max mentions how they share some traits, such as their responses to stress, including violent or impulsive behavior.

“Some generations are in denial, and a lot of that denial comes from people exhibiting some behaviors that are, in fact, neurodivergent,” Spiridakis says.

Stan refuses to even say the word “autism.”

“In my story, it was incredibly difficult and challenging, because one of my parents was absolutely similar in every way to some of the things that Stan was about, but he was in complete denial and wanted nothing to do with it,” Spiridakis says.

“People like Stan didn’t have this diagnosis…they didn’t know what it was. “It was like, ‘There’s Stan, it’s weird.'”

Goldwyn says Farmiga (“The Departed,” “Up in the Air,” “The Many Saints of Newark”) also found the film “deeply personal” because she has a son with autism, and Rainn Wilson (“The Office”), who plays Max’s friend Nick, connected to a story about neurodivergence.

“They’re bringing this depth without even trying, it’s just in their DNA,” Spiridakis says of the cast. “That really accomplished what we were trying to do.”

One of the film’s producers, actor Alex Plank (“The Bridge,” “The Good Doctor”), who has Asperger syndrome, is an autism advocate who was on the set as a consultant. The crew also received sensitivity training prior to production.

“I didn’t allow cell phones or devices on set so people would be focused and there wouldn’t be loud noises,” says Goldwyn, and the filmmakers worked with Fitzgerald’s parents to accommodate their needs.

“It created a very calm and lovely work environment, a creative environment,” says Goldwyn. “I want to replicate it on every set.”

Spiridakis says they have been receiving positive feedback about “Ezra” from neurodivergent people, people with autism and parents of children with autism.

“The reaction from the community that we were trying to honor and be faithful to, that response has kept Tony and I extremely happy.”

The United States of New Jersey

Goldwyn made his directorial debut in 1999 with “A Walk on the Moon.”

His family has a long history in the film business. Her father was film producer Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and her mother was actress Jennifer Howard. Her grandfather was one of the first producers and founders of Hollywood studios, Samuel Goldwyn.

Long before he met William A. Fitzgerald, Goldwyn was an actor known for playing President Fitzgerald “Fitz” Grant III on the ABC series “Scandal.” More recently, he has had roles in “Hacks,” “Law & Order” and the Oscar-winning film “Oppenheimer.”

In addition to directing “Ezra,” Goldwyn plays Bruce, Jenna’s (Byrne) boyfriend.

The Jersey film saw him work again with EGOT winner Whoopi Goldberg, his “Ghost” co-star. Goldwyn had a prominent role in the 1990 film when Carl Bruner and Goldberg won an Oscar for playing Oda Mae Brown.

In “Ezra,” Goldberg plays Jayne, Max’s agent/manager.

Given his connection to Goldwyn, he agreed to make the film without seeing the script.

Spiridakis originally set the film in Manhattan, but Jersey film tax credits led him to change the script.

There were also many Jersey connections between the cast and crew.

Filming in the Garden State “felt really good,” says Goldwyn, who lived in Hoboken for 20 years.

Adding to Fitzgerald’s status as a local were Cannavale and Farmiga’s strong ties to Jersey, and Goldberg’s, too: She considers West Orange’s Llewelyn Park home.

Jersey also came in handy for Max and Ezra’s road trip.

“We recreated the rest of America in New Jersey with the help of some digital magic,” says Goldwyn, including the lakes of Michigan and the landscape of Southern California.

Steven Gorelick, former head of the New Jersey Film and Television Commission, says the Bleecker Street film reported spending about $8.5 million in New Jersey and claimed a $3.4 million tax credit.

“Ezra” filmed at Palisade Stages, a soundstage in Kearny.

Locations included Dr. Lena Edwards Academic Charter School in Jersey City, Conrad’s Confectionery in Westwood, Avenel Performing Arts Center in Woodbridge, Paterson’s School 29, Northvale Classic Diner, Camp Nyoda in Oak Ridge, Green Village Deli in Chatham Township and a courthouse of Essex County. building in Newark.

With his film debut in the books, Fitzgerald, an avid gamer, is looking to launch his own video game-focused YouTube channel.

He has also demonstrated his skills as a screenwriter with a Batman script.

And then there’s the possibility of making more films, although he’s noticed that people’s perception of his age can be skewed.

In the movie, Ezra is 11 years old.

“I’d like to do it if people would hire me,” Fitzgerald says. “I look young, but I’m actually 15, and yet everyone says, ‘Oh, you’re too young,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m 15, I’m not young at all.’

“I don’t think it’s about age,” he says. “Throw it out the window. I do not care about that”.

“Ezra,” rated R, has a runtime of 1 hour and 40 minutes and is in theaters.

© 2024 Avance Local Media LLC
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Read more stories like this. Subscribe to Disability Scoop’s free email newsletter to get the latest news on developmental disabilities delivered right to your inbox.