Once More, Like Rain Man

Zoe, an autistic teen actor, sits through yet another audition where the adults behind the table label her “the autistic one,” joke that she “doesn’t look autistic,” and ask if she has an “autism super power” — you know, “like Rain Man.” Her dad Gerry, a struggling screenwriter trying to keep them both afloat, hustles her from room to room while she’s forced into role after role that reduces her to a checkbox. When Zoe overhears that her mom plans to move her in to increase her payments for having a “disabled kid” at home, the day turns into a battle for control of her own life—not just a booking. At a crowded final call, a casting assistant says the quiet part out loud: they want the character to be “more autistic,” and Zoe has to decide whether to perform a stereotype or tell the truth. What follows is sharp, funny, and cathartic—building to the inevitable when they ask her to do it “once more… like Rain Man.”