- Coming up on "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

- I you wanna be vulnerable and be your real self, what's the worst that can happen?

Oh, people won't like me.

Okay, but how is that bad because if I don't like you for your real self, maybe this is an autism thing, I actually don't care what people thing.

- You're just expecting the best out of people.

I think that's good, but like being online, you have to recognize it's kind of the wild west out there and the world can be that way, too.

- What do you want the viewers to walk away with on this?

- You know, most of all, I hope they relate, you know?

I hope they see themselves in Margaret and, you know, and that they laugh and that they're moved and I hope it inspires them to go tell their own stories with their friends.

- People think when they hear about this movie, oh, it's gonna be a sad movie about a guy with Parkinson's.

It's absolutely not that movie.

He drops out of high school, moves to L.A., he's like really short.

No one thinks he's gonna do anything.

He becomes the biggest movie star in America.

- "The Whitney Reynolds Show" is made possible by Together at Peace, a foundation supporting hopeful bereavement care for the world by inspiring people to find ways to live with honor and share the unique love they carry, spreading the light that still shines bright.

Together at Peace.

Children's Learning Place, dedicated to empowering young students with the confidence to overcome present and future challenges to promote a brighter future for all.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Joeperillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned luxury vehicles.

Based in Chicago, shipping all over the country.

Simple Modern, drinkware with unique styles for adults and kids.

Take us with you.

"The Adventures of Harry Moon" book series for kids, focusing on becoming your best self with themes of friendship, anti-bullying and responsibility at harrymoon.org.

Kevin Kelly, Fume Claire, Midwest Moving and Storage, Mike Dyer, Brendan Stedunsky and by these funders.

♪ So strong ♪ ♪ We will be much more ♪ ♪ So strong ♪ ♪ So strong ♪ - What does it take to be vulnerable and to actually be seen?

That's today's topic.

(audience applauding) ♪ Strong enough ♪ ♪ Holding on ♪ (audience applauding) ♪ So strong ♪ - I want my story to allow other people to feel that they aren't broken, they aren't a bad person, they weren't born to suffer a neurological difference, not an intellectual difference, a neurological difference and, like me, they may have fallen through the cracks based on medicine not catching up.

Autism diagnosis can be really overwhelming, it can be confronting, confusing and just plain exhausting.

You're born and go through life thinking you're just different quirky, socially awkward, a loner, uncool or, like me, just a bad person born to struggle and suffer.

And then out of nowhere, bam, you find out you're actually autistic.

- Orion flew straight from Australia for this interview.

His passion for debunking autism myths keeps him sharing his new story.

After a late diagnosis, his world opened up.

His misfit mentality changed overnight and so did his understanding of the world he lives in.

Tell me when you discovered and connected these dots, was it life changing for you?

- It's a life-changing experience because, you know, prior to diagnosis, for me, as an adult, I just, I was just tired of life.

I was just, I had enough.

- What made you feel like you had enough?

Was it being picked on, was it not feeling like the rest of the people around you?

- With regards to like being picked on, being bullied, ostracized, that kind of stuff, for me, that's from young childhood.

And I've got a nine-year-old son who already faces daily bullying and ostracized.

You can imagine what it does to their mental health.

Just nothing ever works.

You just never fit in.

You just never, and also, too, you spend your entire time masking, camouflaging, suppressing, whatever you wanna, however you wanna call it, to try and fit in but you still fail.

And it's because everyone's prepared to accept you until you're just a little bit too autistic.

If you go through an entire lifetime of never being accepted, never fitting in, in career, in personal, all those kind of things, you blame yourself.

It's just you and I just decided I'm just a bad person.

I shouldn't have been born.

- Because no one had diagnosed you autistic.

- Exactly.

So, yeah, you can only be born autistic.

You can't acquire it or catch it later in life.

So you can blame your parents and look back, but that's not gonna help.

- Had anybody in your family up until when you found out ever said the word autism?

- Oh, I don't believe so.

They definitely said the word different, there's no question about that.

Like I went through my whole childhood not really relating or understand my others brothers and systems.

I mean, I obviously loved them, but what I mean is, just didn't feel, there was a disconnect and that's the thing, there's a disconnect with your own family because your brain is different.

- So you actually hit a point where you're like I don't wanna do this anymore.

- Absolutely, I mean, and I talk about, you know, my story really, it was mostly because of my mental health.

I was so drained and depressed and anxious, just riddled with it that I just, I would prefer not to be around anymore and that's really what I went to my doctor about, but that led to talking to psychologists and psychiatrists and that led to a diagnosis, a misdiagnosis and then a diagnosis and it was the misdiagnoses, the pure lack of education.

Oh, I'm not autistic because during the consult, I could look you in the eye from time to time and I went to university.

That's the reasons, which is- - Right.

- Actually ridiculous and that's why I say later in life, you're diagnosed autistic, you're being recognized.

- You say your son saved your life.

- 100%.

So, I met my wife and she didn't, I wasn't diagnosed.

She married a man who she didn't realize was autistic.

Of course, I always go, yeah, but you obviously, you know, fell in love with me as a person who's not normal, but, you know, my son and I were diagnosed within months.

So it was going through his diagnosis, filling out the forms, my wife was basically saying as you fill out all the forms, because it's very much a parental thing for kids.

This is you and me going this is me.

And having all these moments and then, you know, but for my son being born, you know, but for my son being autistic, I may have never got a diagnosis or realized it to that extent because how am I supposed to put a label on it and, yeah, I really think he saved my life.

I really think autism saved my life.

- It was when his first son being born that he noted him being different.

Yet, it wasn't until his son's actual diagnosis with autism that the penny dropped.

Orion's whole life, he wanted to feel accepted by the world he lived in.

This frustrating struggle, at times, felt unbearable and now he finally had a path to live-saving answers.

- I'm not what you would class as a classic, made-up, stereotypical autism picture, right?

Like I'm not someone who is non-verbal.

We just hadn't got to the point in the understanding of the brain for me to have anyone I could relate to.

So, of course, I've gone through life not being able to relate to anyone, which is probably one of the reasons why I'm trying to put me out there and people are going I finally feel seen, but I'm gonna do my best to fix my son's life and autistic kids' lives.

I pretty much disclosed to the world days later and then started making content and putting myself out there.

- His eye-opening diagnosis changed his life and he's now created a platform where he is extremely vulnerable and real with his community.

His YouTube channel is watched by millions and he even authored a book.

He calls himself the Autism Guy.

- It's okay to take your time, go at your own pace in your journey of discovering how you and an autistic diagnosis fit together.

The last thing I add to being patient, being graceful, caring and kind to yourself is being patient with others.

Try not to get caught in a trap of judging others.

I get it, our whole lives are purely being judged by others as autistic people, so it's hard to not throw it back at him, but in this phase of being diagnosed, it might make sense to you, but it might not make sense to everyone else in your life.

- Do you hope that you are changing the future?

- You talk about vulnerability, to me the thing I've learned is if you can emotionally connect with someone, you can allow them to open up to understand you and if they understand you, they'll appreciate you.

And that's what it's all about for me.

- Wow, wow, your son, is he like you where he's verbal?

Has he let you know that you are making changes?

- Yeah, he's done some live streams with me and they love him, which is great.

So, you know, the family business is my YouTube channel.

He can take it over.

That's my family business.

You know, my son, who's nine, he speaks like a professor, but he still struggles to read.

People need to understand this.

This is a neurological developmental condition, so it's fluid, it's a spectrum.

Our daily support needs change.

This is a thing.

I have a daily, a daily conversation with my son's school.

I have to tell them that he's autistic and this is why, again, every day.

I've got to explain to the world why I'm different every day because the world doesn't want to decide, I already know that.

Then why am I explaining that every day?

It's hard.

- Have you seen any forward movement with what you've done?

- I definitely have.

With, you know, my son's school, I've turned them around to the point where, you know, we have really great conversations.

They're really positive, they're really open and that's the other thing.

You don't fix this stuff by aggression and violence.

It's a respect, so I'm respectful with the school.

I'm respectful with employers.

I get paid money to talk to big companies now, which is ironic because they wouldn't hire me, right?

This is kind of funny.

But, you know, you have to be respectful.

So it's a relationship.

It's working together and too many people either fall into the trap of either doing nothing or just yelling from the sidelines.

- The vulnerability side of stepping into who you are, we might have some viewers that don't know where to start.

They might not have the same diagnosis you do.

What would you say to them about being vulnerable with their story and also trying to create change for the next generation.

- If you wanna be vulnerable and be your real self, what's the worse that can happen?

Oh, people won't like me.

Okay, well, then, but how is that bad because if they don't like you for your real self, maybe this is an autism thing, but I actually don't care what people think.

The real you is only offensive to people that obviously don't like who they are.

So you need to be vulnerable and you need to be yourself and that's why when I'm doing my videos, they're pretty horrible because I don't really care what you know, what you don't know.

It doesn't really bother me and I don't understand how to guess what's right, what you should know and what you shouldn't know.

You know, be vulnerable enough to take off the mask because I've had to because I've been masking my whole life to fit in and it hasn't worked and I'm tired.

- Do you still feel that void of is this it in life?

- Yeah, absolutely.

Is this it in life.

You're doing all this effort to do these things while you're alive.

What do you think happens when you're gone.

- And that's why you have created these videos.

That's why you're vulnerable and that's why you're doing it.

- It's a legacy.

It's a legacy you can watch and that can help people forever and that's something that content can do more than almost anything else.

You know, words in a room- - Right.

- They die on the ground, you know.

Content stays forever.

- Well, thank you so much for coming on.

- Thank you so much for having me.

(gentle music) - And now to an actor's story where his vulnerability was unscripted.

- When it comes to vulnerability Davis Guggenheim, a director known for his word with "ER," "Melrose Place," "The First Date," and many more went there.

He walked us through a hard stage that actually connected him to a story that was also difficult and as the cameras started rolling, both found deeper purpose.

- I read one of Michael J.

Fox's books and it was so inspiring and I was like I wanna know more about that.

I was down in the dumps during COVID.

I'm approaching 60 years old.

I felt like I was in a rut and I was like I'm sick of the movies I've been making, I need something different.

And so I called him up.

It lifted me out of that hole.

I think people think when they hear about this movie, oh, it's gonna be a sad movie about a guy with Parkinson's.

It's absolutely not that movie.

It's an uplifting story about this guy, he drops out of high school, moves to L.A.

He's like really short.

No one things he's gonna do anything.

He becomes the biggest movie star in America.

He goes from nothing to here in like a couple of years.

- "The Story of Me," take two.

- Three, two, here we go, ready and action.

- Wait a minute, Doc, are you telling me that you built a time machine?

- Here is Michael J.

Fox.

- What is the secret of your success?

- And the winner is- - Michael J.

Fox.

- I don't believe this, this is great.

I feel four feet tall.

- I picked Apple TV+.

I said I don't wanna make a documentary, I wanna make an 80s Michael J.

Fox movie, a wild ride that has ups and downs and laughter and tears and that's what we did.

It really does feel like a ride.

- I woke up and I noticed my pinky, auto-animated, Parkinson's disease.

- Going to the vulnerability part of his interviews, I mean, he went there.

- Yeah.

- Was it hard to have him go there?

- No, I think, here's the thing.

He talks about Parkinson's as the gift that keeps on taking.

Think about that.

Parkinson's is this chronic disease, it gets worse and worse, it doesn't get better, but it's been a gift for him like it is for all of us when we start to touch our mortality and we start to feel fragile in our lives, we start to appreciate things.

Think because of who he is and where he is in his life, he's just like what am I gonna hide?

And I think often when you watch a documentary, you're going, are they really telling me everything?

Like they're circling around this one idea, but they don't, they're just giving me sort of like half the story.

Michael's an open book in this movie.

- What did it mean to be still.

- I wouldn't know, I was never still.

I get it, I was big, I was bigger than bubble gum.

- The sad sack story is Michael J.

Fox gets this debilitating disease and it crushes him.

- Yeah, that's boring.

- I just want people to feel what I feel, which is like he lifts me up.

Here's this guy, he's got a really tough deal right now.

His Parkinson's is pretty advanced, but every time I'm with him, it lifts me up and when people watch this movie, I want them to feel that way, too.

- Absolutely, thank you so much.

- Yeah, thanks for having me.

(upbeat music) - Being vulnerable can be a choice, but what if it's not?

We chat with Jane Lynch about that.

- Sweat more at night than you do at the gym, which is rich coming from Linda, who's wearing yoga pants, but never does yoga.

- I stretch.

- How do you know so much about us?

- Recognize that voice?

It's Jane Lynch and her latest work with Apple's Health App, where she lifts the curtain and talks privacy.

- Halitosis.

Wakes up to pee.

Bunions.

Lice.

And Ringworm (laughs).

Who's next?

Wait, what's that in your hand?

No, no, stop.

- Tell me why you picked up this project?

- Well, there's good vulnerability and there's bad vulnerability.

When you're innocent and you're just expecting the best out of people, I think that's good, but being online, you have to recognize that it's kind of the wild west out there and the world can be that way, too.

So you have to have a certain amount of protection and be able to suss out the bad ones, like my character in this voiceover.

- When I came over your way, were you like this is something I have to be a part of?

- Oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

No, I heard myself when I read it.

I was like, oh, I can do this, I can do this.

Well, I am one of those people who over shares on social media and on the internet in general and this whole idea that we may not be, all of our information may not be safe and you know how we kind of go into it thinking that we're protected and we're not and so this, I felt, was a really fun way to kind of scare people into knowing that their health information, that they might actually unwillingly be just giving it out to the internet.

- What would you say for your fans that wanna get behind things that are deep thought provoking ideas.

- Just always go with your heart, what means something to you and don't ever do anything against your own sense of what's helpful in society and what is not helpful in society.

♪ Strong enough ♪ - And now to a book turned movie where we follow and I felt Margaret.

An iconic book turned movie, taking you back to the reality of the teenage transition.

We sat down with Kelly Fremon-Craig, the director and writer of this Lionsgate film and discovered the reality of bringing this to life and all the emotion behind it.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- I wanna go back to 11-year-old self when you were reading it.

At that point in your life, 'cause I was a young dreamer, I don't know about you, were you dreaming of things you could potentially do with movies and that kind of stuff at 11?

- I was constantly writing a journal and making up stories and plays.

- And so when you stepped into this, did you say, okay, I'm gonna go back and find my favorite novels from when I was younger, like- - Yes!

- Oh, that's what you did.

- Yes, I did, yes.

That's exactly what I did, yeah.

- But I'm so curious with the process of I'm gonna go back and find novels and actually turn it into, like that's brilliant in itself.

So what was that journey like for you?

- Well, really what happened is I sat down and I thought who are the authors that most impacted me, what are the books I just loved and like live in my heart and Judy Blume was at the top of that list and so I started to reread all her work and when I got to this one, I just was, I just was bowled over by it, you know.

The last page I thought was so beautiful and I thought this has to be a movie, it deserves to be a movie.

- Be normal and regular like everyone else, just please, please, please, please, please.

- It's interesting because as you're following Margaret, it was this reality of what it is like to be coming of age and I started thinking back to all the awkwardness of- - So much awkwardness.

- Coming into teenage years.

- I feel like awkwardness is the 12-year-old existence, at least mine, you know.

Yeah, it's just such a strange, because you're not a kid, you're not an adult, you're just in this weird in between zone and you've become very self-conscious and it's a wild time, you know.

It's a hard time.

- Hard time.

- And I have to say, though, when you get past it you can look back and laugh because it does pass and, you know, and we've all been there.

- You touched on a lot of spiritualty, big one, obviously, we have two different religions going on here and that scene around when the grandmas are all there, a lot going on in that room.

- Yeah.

- But then you also are showing just like the coming of age and the reality behind all that.

- Yep.

- So it was like a really good look and warm feeling.

What do you want the viewers to walk away with from this?

- You know, most of all, I hope they relate.

I hope they see themselves in Margaret and that they laugh and that they're moved and I hope it inspires them to go tell their own stories with their friends.

That's what we see happen.

You know, people go to the theater and they watch it and then you just see everyone get together and start to swap stories and laugh.

- Well, we were doing that.

- There's something connecting about it, yes.

- We were doing that before we started rolling camera.

- And that's what happens and it's really cool.

- Well, thank you so much for creating this piece.

I have to say, like now I wanna read the book.

I'm not an active reader, but now I want to and I think you're right, it does spark that conversation.

- Yeah.

- This is who I am, this is where I come from and this is where I'm kind of going.

To be vulnerable is to be open and that's what we do each week on "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

Remember, your story matters.

(gentle music) - "The Whitney Reynolds Show" is made possible by Together at Peace, a foundation supporting hopeful bereavement care for the world by inspiring people to find ways to live with, honor and share the unique love they carry, spreading the light that still shines bright, Together at Peace.

Children's Learning Place, dedicated to empowering young students with the confidence to overcome present and future challenges to promote a brighter future for all.

Kevin O'Connor law firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Joeperillo.com, where you can browse their selection of pre-owned luxury vehicles.

Based in Chicago, shipping all over the country.

Simple modern, drinkware with unique styles for adults and kids.

Take us with you.

"The Adventures of Harry Moon" book series for kids, focusing on becoming your best self with themes of friendship, anti-bullying and responsibility at harrymoon.org.

Kevin Kelly, Fume Claire, Midwest Moving and Storage, Mike Dyer, Brendan Stedunsky and by these funders.

♪ So strong ♪ - Coming up on "The Whitney Reynold Show's" current season.

- 10 years of emotional battle were wiped out within two or three minutes, so when I am on set, it feels like home, like being like home and the comradery that's there with everybody willing to give their all from not just the actors, but our crew, the grips, our caterers.

And not everybody is of faith, but they're all enveloped by it and I do see it affecting how people treat each other there.

So, I got this tattoo in Sturgis.

It's a huge bike rally in South Dakota and one morning we had a group of bikers come in that wanted to get a memorial tattoo for one of their friends, one of their crew that always went with them but, unfortunately, she was terminally ill and the night before she partied with her husband, her friends, her family, her son and that morning around 7 a.m., she went back to the hospice and passed away.

So around 11 a.m., they all came in to get a tattoo for her and it was intense.

It was very intense, just because it was so fresh I think and all of us, like all of the tattoo artists, we were in tears.

- I am getting back in the convoy of vehicles and I text my husband some stupid joke that says if I get kidnapped, will you come and get me, will you come and rescue me and he responds something like ha, ha, of course.

Now just be safe and get back to the guest house and that's the last interaction we have and I hear the crack of the butt of an AK47 and putting a gun to my head and he screams at the driver to drive.

- For more information on today's program, visit whitneyreynolds.com or get social with us, Facebook, Whitney Reynolds Show, Twitter, Whitney Reynolds or on TikTok and Instagram, Whitney-_Reynolds.

- [Children] Our mommy.

(gentle music)