This American Life
About the Film
In the second season premiere of the TV show “This American Life”, hosted by Ira Glass, escaping is the main theme. People who try escaping from a place, people who try living independently. Mike Phillips, a 27-year-old suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, a disease which has eliminated his ability to move his limbs, has the same wish.
He wants to have own life, a life like anyone else has a chance to have, as he states. Because he lost his ability to speak, due to a breathing tube inserted in his neck, he communicates typing out the words on a 17-inch Macbook Pro laptop suspended above his bed. He types words letter-by-letter with his thumb across a cylindrical switch connected to a CD-sized box on his bed, sending the completed sentence through a voice simulator.
In the beggining of the episode, the host asks Mike who he would like to read his e-mails in the story, replacing the voice simulator. Mike says that he would like Johnny Depp or Edward Norton, because either way, they are both badasses. And, by his request, because Edward Norton was not available, the kind and always willing to help – the one and only Johnny Depp, served as his voice, reading e-mails in which Mike wrote about his personal experiences.
Despite his illness, Mike is ambitious, living and trying to live as a normal human being, along his girlfriend Sara, with whom he has lots of fun, going to movies, clubs, restaurants – things any couple does. He has no time for fear Source: Mike’s blog
