A mission driven to helping Diego
‘Ezra’ movie producer found support for his autistic son at East Providence hospital
EAST PROVIDENCE — Just three years ago, the producer of “Ezra,” a new movie about a father and his autistic son that stars robert De niro and bobby cannavale, was desperate for ways to help his own autistic teenage son.
William Horberg’s son, Diego, who was then 16, was in crisis.
“It was just a particularly difficult time for him,” Horberg said. “He is a very sweet young man, but he was manifesting some of his frustrations, some anxiety, and self-awareness around his autism in some aggressive behavior, which was so uncharacteristic of him.”
Yet Horberg, who has produced award-winning films including “cold mountain,” “The Talented mr. ripley,” ”milk,” and the netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit,” was in the same position as many other parents of autistic children with psychiatric needs. There weren’t enough placements for the children who needed them.
Through a series of connections, Horberg met rick Granoff, who is on the foundation board of trustees for bradley Hospital in East providence, new England’s only psychiatric hospital devoted to children. “He just made it his mission to help Diego,” Horberg said, “and i’m incredibly indebted to him and his family, because it was so critical at that time.”
Granoff introduced Horberg to Dr. Henry T. Sachs iii, the president and chief medical officer of bradley Hospital, who has specialized in autism and developmental disabilities for 30 years.
Bradley didn’t have any residential beds available — there’s so much need that the hospital only takes referrals for children in rhode island, massachusetts, and connecticut — but Sachs encouraged Horberg to place Diego in the hospital’s unique partial hospitalization program.
“I could hear the desperation in his voice,” Sachs said. “i said if you want to do something with partial, i can make it work.”
The partial program offers sixhour intensive programs for children during the day; they go home to their families in the evening. Horberg moved from new York to rhode island temporarily so Diego could enroll in the program, where he rewanting mained for four months.
“Bradley was just a really unique, very special, and irreplaceable service. We felt incredibly lucky that we were able to access bradley,” Horberg said. “They have a very robust program specifically for teenagers with autism who have behavioral issues . ... it was life-changing for us.”
Horberg wanted to show his thanks to bradley Hospital. So, on may 9, Horberg and award-winning actor/director Tony Goldwyn decided to host a private screening of “Ezra” at the Warwick Showcase for bradley’s board members, donors, and senior staff.
The film, which opens nationwide on may 31, tells a story about fathers and sons, coming to terms with how autism affects a family, tackled on a cross-country road trip.
Cannavale plays max, a stand-up comedian living with his father, who is played by De niro, and struggling with his ex-wife, played by his reallife partner rose byrne, to raise their autistic son, Ezra. The boy is played by newcomer William Fitzgerald, an autistic new Jersey teenager who Horberg and Goldwyn described as “a natural.” The film also stars Whoopi Goldberg, rainn Wilson, and Vera Farmiga.
“Ezra” received a standing ovation when it premiered at the Toronto international Film Festival last September.
It’s also a deeply personal film for Horberg and Goldwyn, and their longtime friend, screenwriter Tony Spiridakis, who based the character of Ezra on his own autistic son, Dimitri. The young actor, William, closely resembled a young Dimitri, Goldwyn said.
“We very much hope that this is a film that every audience can relate to, because it’s really about family. it’s about fathers and sons, and about generational dysfunction,” Horberg said. “i think whether you are immediately touched by having a neurodivergent child in your family, that it’s just very entertaining and kind of makes you laugh, makes you cry. it’s a story of what it is to be human, and how much we as parents try to do the right thing, struggle to do the right thing, and often need to be led by our children, as much as we need to lead them.”
Spiridakis spent a dozen years writing and rewriting the script that became “Ezra,” which hewed closely to events in his personal life, Goldwyn said.
The resulting script told a story that grabbed their hearts. De niro, who has an autistic son, quickly signed on, Goldwyn said.
“Tony had things he really wanted to talk about, and i just found it as both a filmmaker and audience member to be incredibly powerful, hilarious, and really a metaphor for something that everybody, every family experiences, every child experiences — to be able to fit in and being unable to do so,” Goldwyn said. “Every parent feels this tremendous pressure to help their child to fit into the norms of society in order to succeed. We all have to learn that’s not the answer. Our power actually lies in discovering our own individuality and standing in that.”
Horberg said he wanted to do something to show his appreciation for bradley Hospital. The summer before shooting “Ezra,” he attended a fund-raiser for the hospital and raffled off a visit to the movie set. He invited Granoff and his wife, marcy, to see the movie during early screenings for friends and family.
Horberg wanted to do more, so he spoke to Granoff about putting together this private screening just for bradley “to use the power of the story of this film to try to help as many people as we can.”
Sachs, bradley’s president, said he was grateful.
“people focus on the child and their needs, but what sometimes gets missed is the impact on families,” he said. “For me, understanding how families respond to this — they are the unsung heroes, and they are as challenged by it as the child themselves.”
For the filmmakers, there are perhaps no more important audience members than the young men who inspired them — Dimitri, who is now a fine artist, and Diego, who is now 19.
Dimitri told his father that he loved it, Goldwyn said.
And Diego, who had stopped watching movies when he was 14, was curious enough to visit the set and meet William, the boy playing Ezra. He agreed to watch the movie with his father.
When it ended, Diego told Goldwyn that he wished the movie was longer, Horberg said.
“And then he turned to me, and he kind of patted me on the shoulder, which is something that Ezra does to max in the film,” Horberg said. “And he said, ‘Dad, you’re a good producer.’
“it really put a tear in my eye,” Horberg added. “That was the absolute raison d’être of this whole experience.”