members communicate with each other, an
article section with exclusive articles and howto guides, a blogging feature, and a lot more.
We now have 100,000 registered members and
usually get up to around 20,000 unique visitors
a day.
MP: How do you think Wrong Planet has made
a difference in people’s lives?
PLANK: The most popular aspect of Wrong
Planet is the discussion forum. Members find
the most value in connecting with one another. It’s
an aspect of their lives that
they find very important.
Many members have gone
their entire lives being
disconnected and feeling
alone, so the opportunity
for community is something that’s valuable and
game changing for a lot
of people. People feel like
they’ve finally found their
“tribe;” they finally belong
somewhere.
did you have to deal with in order to do that?
PLANK: There are more opportunities out here
for film stuff, and I wanted to have those opportunities, so I packed up my Range Rover and
went with a buddy. I didn’t have a job, but I did
have the website. I was worried that I would get
there and not support myself financially. Finding work was a struggle, but I was doing video
projects for a few nonprofits. I had speaking
engagements, so I was able to travel to different
places as well.
“Asperger’s
isn’t something
that needs to
be cured. It just
MP: You graduated from
George Mason University
with a degree in film and
video studies. Tell us about
your college experience,
and do you have any advice for others?
ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
involvement with FX’s The
Bridge.
PLANK: I was in LA a
couple of years before I
started working on The
Bridge. An executive at FX
called and, basically, he
asked me questions on the
phone about autism and
about a character that they
were developing on this
TV show. Then the writer
called, and I was asked to
meet with the lead actress
(Diane Kruger). I guess the
meeting went well because
after the meeting I got an
email from the executive
producer, who said that
Diane loved me, and they invited me to work on
the series.
gives me a
different
outlook.”
PLANK: Good. It was a very big growing ex-
24
MP: Tell us about your
perience for me. I learned a lot about making
friends. For kids that are out there considering
college and trying to make friends: don’t see
rejection as a bad thing; just see it as a part of
the process. You’re not going to get along with
everyone, so if some people don’t want to be
your friend, I wouldn’t take that personally.
The character’s autism is never really mentioned; you don’t know if she even knows it.
It’s just addressed in the behaviors and relationships she has. The problem with a lot of shows
is that they usually have a stereotypical character with Asperger’s. They just go through and
give them all the symptoms and then they make
a big deal out of it.
MP: A few years back, you packed yourself up
and moved to LA. Why? What kinds of issues
The Bridge isn’t about autism or Asperger’s; it’s
about the character, and that just happens to
ZOOM Autism through Many Lenses
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