2 l January
16 - 22, 2022
Northeast Oregon TV Weekly
BY JAY BOBBIN
Joe Mantegna (left) and Rick Glassman star in
“As We See It,” which begins streaming Friday on Amazon.
Joe Mantegna helps portray autism
‘As We See It’ in Amazon series
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After his long run on “Criminal Minds,”
Joe Mantegna’s new series is quite a switch
for him ... and he brings part of his own
family background to it.
A parent of an autistic daughter, the
Tony Award-winning actor also addresses
the subject in “As We See It,” Amazon’s
adaptation of an Israeili drama series that
begins streaming Friday, Jan, 21. Mantegna
portrays the father of Jack (Rick Glassman),
one of several young-adult roommates on
the autism spectrum who are supported
by their families and each other. Albert
Rutecki and Sue Ann Pien play the other
members of the central trio, with Sosie
Bacon (daughter of Kevin Bacon and Kyra
Sedgwick) as their main aide.
“I’ve been involved in it since its
inception,” Mantegna says of the show
developed by Emmy-winning executive
producer Jason Katims (“Friday Night
Lights,” “Parenthood”). “They came to me
shortly after ‘Criminal Minds’ stopped, and
when I read the (pilot) script, I was really
knocked out by it ... for a lot of reasons.
Jason is such a wonderful, beautiful writer,
and it had a very personal impact on me.”
Mantegna isn’t sure whether his eldest
daughter Gia’s condition was known to
Katims. “I never asked,” he reveals. “Jason
might have thought that might be an
interesting layer, but I know that it’s also a
personal thing for him. They really thought
it out to the point where, besides that the
three main actors were identified as being
on the autism spectrum, they were going
to hire 12 (autistic) people on the crew –
which is really unheard of. You have to go
through the unions and all that, and they
did that. I hope it’s a sign of the times, in
terms of where we’re going with inclusion.”
In “As We See It,” Mantegna’s character
Lou faces a health challenge of his own.
“My watchword for a good part of my
life has been, ‘Everybody’s got a story,
and nobody gets a free ride,’ ” reflects
Mantegna. “To me, this is an example of
that. Each of us has a personal story, and
some of those are things we would not have
chosen. And so be it.”
Gia Mantegna is a makeup artist who
almost ended up working on “As We See It”
along with her father, but ultimately didn’t.
However, her dad has enjoyed acting with
Glassman as his on-screen son, deeming
him “a wonderful young man. Most people
in the world would think of him as just a
smart, sunny, quirky guy, yet being sensitive
to that world, I could tell there’s a reason
for that quirkiness. He’s a stand-up comic,
so he has those certain savant abilities, just
like my daughter has.”
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