While most autistic characters spotlighted widely in the entertainment world are white (The Good Doctor’s Shaun Murphy and Atypical’s Sam Gardener) we are slowly beginning to see more autistic characters of color represented in film.
A perfect example of this is Lifetime’s film Safe Room that premiered on January 15, 2022. Nik Sanchez – a rising acting star who is also autistic played the role of Ian who is also on the autism spectrum. RespectAbility – a nonprofit organization helped Lifetime to make sure that the portrayal was as realistic as possible.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Nik Sanchez being spotlighted as Hallmark Films just featured him playing an autistic character in Our Christmas Journey. You can read more about that film here as I discuss how it also costars Holly Robinson Peete who is an autism advocate who also has an autistic son.
As an autism entertainment consultant who works to bring realistic portrayals of autism to our entertainment industry, I was excited to give this film a look. One of the first films I consulted on was Joyful Noise (Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton) and one of the characters was Walter Hill who was also a black autistic teenager similar to the Ian character.
Spoilers below so if you haven’t watched the film yet give this blog a share and a like and let me know what you think after you’ve had a chance to watch.
Here were some of my thoughts on the film…
It made me think about my journey on the autism spectrum. Multiple moments during the film (such as his focus on his daily routine) reminded me of my teenage years on the spectrum especially transitioning to high school. The strong relationship that he and his mom Lila have reminds me of my connection with my mom too.
Not focusing on stereotypes. I’ve seen films featuring an autistic character typically go right away to listing them as a savant or giving them a photogenic memory. This character stays away from being one-dimensional.
Overall I applaud Nik’s breakthrough performance and hope we will only continue to see more actual autistic representation moving forward. You can check out the film at Lifetime On Demand and soon on Video on Demand services.
If Lifetime sees this post, I would like to offer my services to them moving forward in addition to the terrific job RespectAbility has done. As an autism entertainment consultant, I’ve come to realize the true importance of representation. Growing up with autism, the only entertainment projects I knew about that featured an autistic character included Rain Man. I’m glad more of the spectrum is now getting to be spotlighted. You can learn more about my work as an autism consultant here on projects such as Joyful Noise, Jane Wants A Boyfriend, and Mrs. Fletcher and how I can help you with your project by contacting me here. My work in these projects has included script review, audition outreach, casting, shadowing during production, helping answer questions to the director, cast, and crew about Autism Spectrum Disorders, and outreach to our autism community during post-production.
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My name is Kerry Magro, a professional speaker and best-selling author who is also on the autism spectrum that started the nonprofit KFM Making a Difference in 2011 to help students with autism receive scholarship aid to pursue a post-secondary education. Help support me so I can continue to help students with autism go to college by making a tax-deductible donation to our nonprofit here.
