If You Could Say it in Words: New Asperger’s Movie (Interview)
Nicholas Gray’s directorial debut, If you Could Say it in Words, is a feature film about Nelson Hodge, a young African American guy with Asperger’s living in Philidelphia. While there have recently been a plethora of films about individuals with Asperger’s, most have been documentaries, and none have featured a protagonist with Asperger’s who falls into a lower-income socioeconomic class.
Read on to listen to an interview with the director and lead actor. We also have exclusive video clips from the movie.
Audio Interview:
(player not working? download the mp3)
If you Could Say it in Words, stands out as a unique story of a man who belongs to an economic, racial, and a neurological minority. Due to the culture he grows up in, Nelson is never diagnosed with Asperger’s and the syndrome is never mentioned by name. However, it is clear from Nelson’s behaviors and quirks, that he would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s if he had grown up in a more advantaged family.
Nelson is played by Alvin Keith, who made his big screen debut in the critically acclaimed movie, Kinsey. His romantic interest, Sadie is played by Marin Ireland, an actress who was in The Manchurian Candidate and I am Legend.
I talked with director Nicholas Gray and actor Alvin Keith who visited me at my house in Virginia. We had so much fun talking that our conversation lasted hours. Consequently I will not be transcribing the interview and will instead be including the audio file which you can listen to near the top of this page.
Nicholas has provided us with some trailers of the film which have been embedded into this article for your viewing enjoyment.
Clips from the movie:
