Even though it’s estimated that 75 million adults in the world have autism spectrum disorder, the authentic media representation on the topic still leaves a lot to be desired. There’s certainly more projects than before starring autistic people, but when I asked 20-year-old writer/actress Bella Zoe Martinez if she could point to one, perhaps among the 2025 movies or TV releases, that she could applaud, she came up blank. In her case, she’s taking it in her hands in a sense with her short film, Once More, Like Rain Man.
Back in 2023, she had the opportunity to star in the 15-minute comedy about a 14-year-old named Zoe who is going on a string of Hollywood auditions for autistic roles, only to be told over and over that she doesn’t fit the part. She wrote the script herself, and made the short with nearly 40% of the cast and crew consisting of people who are either neurodiverse or living with a disability, and its director being As We See It star (who is also autistic) Sue Ann Pien. Martinez said this of her inspirations for the short during our Zoom interview:
It was mainly based off actual like auditions, like loosely, but also actual questions I've actually gotten like outside of auditions 'cause I'm autistic, my siblings are autistic as well – they're the ones that animated the end credits [for Once More, Like Rain Man]. When it comes to that's something I've always kinda had, I've always heard ‘girls can't get autism.’ I'm like, ‘Bro, are you hearing yourself? What is this?’
Martinez is the daughter of two veterans on the production side of Hollywood and has been acting since she was seven years old. Throughout her upbringing, she’s dealt with a lot of misinformation from those around her about what it means to be autistic, and that includes in the audition process. As she continued:
At times, and I just always kind of wondered like when I did see specifically autistic characters and [I’d wonder] why were they so flat and one dimensional. It’s like thinking you're the hero in a video game or something, and then slowly realizing, ‘Wait a minute, I'm not the hero, I'm the obstacle.’ That's something I desperately wanted to change because I'm a storyteller.
In recent years, there’s certainly been more instances of autism being talked about in popular media, from the hit Netflix dating series Love On The Spectrum to The Last Of Us actor Bella Ramsey speaking out about their autism diagnosis. Martinez’s short film feels like a glimmer of a future where the community can tell their own stories in media, rather than outside perspectives selling harmful depictions of what it’s like to be on the autism spectrum. Check out the trailer below:
Once More, Like Rain Man has been playing at film festivals, and hopes to earn the attention of The Academy during next year’s Oscars in the category of Best Live-Action Short Film. But perhaps more than that, Martinez wants to tell more of the story. As she shared:
We actually have a script for a feature. We do like to dive deeper into the characters as well as what kind of happened. It would just kind of end where the short kind of begins with Zoe and Jerry, but it's really fun expanding upon this world.
I’ve seen the short myself, and it’s a sharply funny movie that is just as entertaining as it is poignant. 15 minutes is not enough, and I’d love to see it become a feature film as Martinez intends.
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