Brendan Fraser and Jean Smart are set to star in It’s a Wonderful Life for the Ed Asner Family Center. On December 11, the duo will be joined by Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, and Ken Jeong. If that wasn’t enough star power, JK Simmons, Brent Spiner, Phil LaMarr, Jim Beaver, Chelsea Darnell and Ben Mankiewicz. As for hosting duties, Tom Bergeron will be on hand to do the festivities. The read will also serve to honor Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann as well. Variety reports that the Family Center is thrilled to be getting a hand from so many established stars. Check out what the Asner Family has to say about all this down below!
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“As the parents of autistic children, [my husband] Matt and I saw a desperate need to create a safe and welcoming community for Special Needs families,” Ed Asner Family Center co-founder Navah Asner wrote in a statement Wednesday. “The Center provides arts and vocational enrichment and critical mental health services to these individuals and their families, creating a unique space to learn, interact and thrive. In that spirit, I’m thrilled to announce that we have developed an incredible, interactive and inclusive adult day care program that combines job training, life skills and expressive arts to foster self-confidence, independence and purpose.”
“I am amazed and deeply grateful that this incredible group of actors have volunteered their time and talent to support The Ed Asner Family Center, a cause near and dear to my dad’s heart,” said Matt Asner, son of Ed Asner and Center co-founder. “He would be so very proud. I would like to thank this year’s honorees, Judd Apatow and Leslie Mann, for their generous dedication and commitment to the autism community. In addition, my heartfelt thanks to Turner Classic Movies and Whatnot for partnering with us this year and helping to make this very special event a huge success.”
What Does The Ed Asner Family Center Do?
Asner himself penned a letter explaining why he founded the Ed Asner Family Center: “My son once asked me “what would you be doing if you hadn’t become an actor?”. I thought about this and as I did I realized that acting and performance saved my life. Through acting and the arts I found self-confidence and was able to use that confidence in critical areas of my life. Our education system is broken. Enrichment has been replaced by test scores and metrics completely taking personality out of the equation. In the world of special education this is even more true.”
“My fellow dreamer and I, Navah Paskowitz-Asner, whose successful ‘Family Conferences’ which stressed support for the entirety of the family, not just the special needs individual, has played a big part in pushing this dream forward. This center of enrichment where we can develop a most important part of our being, character. This will be achieved by offering arts programs at our centers after school and on the weekends as well as counseling and mindfulness classes. These classes and sessions will promote self confidence and balance. Something that will translate in all areas in life including an area that needs much attention in the Neurodiverse world, employment. Over 80% of individuals with a cognitive difficulty are unemployed or under employed.”
Will you be watching the table read? Let us know down in the comments!
