Surrey grad turned actor channels life experiences with autism into new film role

An Elgin Park Secondary graduate is the star of a new coming-of-age drama that captures the challenges of life as a teenager with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and aims to accurately portray neurodiversity in film.

In When Time Got Louder, Jonathan Simao plays Kayden, the non-verbal brother of the film’s lead Abbie, played by Hunger Games actor Willow Shields. After Abbie gets a taste of independence in her first semester at college and starts a new romance, she struggles to balance the need to support her parents in caring for her autistic brother with her own desires for personal growth and a life of her own.

For Simao, who is on the spectrum, the opportunity to play a character with autism allowed him to fully portray himself onscreen and embrace his autism while gaining an understanding of how non-verbal people with autism see and experience the world.

“I actually found it a lot easier to play than some other characters I’ve portrayed over the years because I understood it on a deeper level,” he said. “A lot of the behaviours that some people on the spectrum have… I’ve had to hide those in my life. So it was very relieving to be able to go back into those and be able to embrace them in a character.”

Simao’s interest in acting began at four or five years old, with a curiosity around voice acting in cartoons, but it wasn’t until he was about 13 that he started taking acting classes and auditioning for school plays.

“I was involved in every production that I could get in, from Grade 7 into high school,” he recalled. “It was really fun just to see everybody come together to create this one story onstage together. Some of my best memories from high school are doing those theatre productions.”

Through his schooling, Simao’s passion for acting was encouraged by his mom Lyssa, who also works as an education assistant with the district. He said he received a lot of support from his mom and other education assistants and teachers, such as his Grade 7 teacher Marian Upex, who helped him along the way.

“My mom definitely helped me through a lot of points in my life, especially with my acting career – she would always drive me to classes, always try to sign me up as much as she could,” he said. “She was aware I was on the spectrum but my parents didn’t really let that be a factor in a lot of things. They mostly treated me as if I was a neurotypical – I think that really helped me understand to communicate more clearly.

“Mrs. Upex was the same, it just felt like she treated me like everybody else. She helped me move forward in the world and didn’t hold me back.”

Now that he’s on the silver screen, Simao said it’s important to him that there is accurate representation of people with autism in film and television, in order to improve the general public’s understanding of ASD.

“There’s a lot of stigma around people who are on the spectrum, mostly focusing on the aspect where they’re hypersensitive, they can’t communicate and it’s overwhelming for everybody,” he said. “That’s just one specific person’s reaction, and it’s all people think it is – they put a label on it.

“Even if you put two neurotypicals in a room, who they are and how they’ve experienced life is completely different. It’s important to show that people who are on the spectrum are not so different than neurotypicals.”

Simao said he hopes anyone with autism who watches When Time Got Louder takes away a significant message of personal acceptance and compassion.

“I want them to know they’re not alone and that you don’t have to be ashamed of who you are,” he said. “You don’t have to have that hold you back. Be proud of it. You have stronger sense of empathy, you’re able to understand people on a deeper level than most.

“It’s not something that will bring you down, it’s something that, I believe, will build you up.”

When Time Got Louder has two screenings this weekend at the Vancouver International Film Festival:

• Saturday, Oct. 8 at 2:30 p.m. – Vancouver Playhouse (600 Hamilton St., Vancouver)
• Sunday, Oct. 9 at 2:45 p.m. – SFU Woodwards (149 W Hastings St., Vancouver)

To book tickets or for more information, visit VIFF.org.