Colin Farrell’s Los Angeles home is a bustle and bustle far from the actor’s comfort zone. While photography and video crews are busy moving around his hillside home, Farrell, 48, is keeping an eye on his son, James, 20, who has Angelman syndrome, a rare neurogenetic disorder.
James, who cannot speak, was sitting in the backyard playing catch with his nanny when he made eye contact with a journalist standing nearby and immediately threw a mini basketball at him to invite him to play.
James’ eyes lit up when he saw Farrell, but nothing was more visible than the pride that filled the father’s chest as those around them responded so sweetly to his son.
“I want the world to be kind to James,” Farrell told PEOPLE. “I want the world to treat him with kindness and respect.”
And that was the driving force behind Farrell’s decision to open up her home and talk in depth about her life with her son for the first time. James, who turns 21 in September, is stepping outside of many of the support systems in place for families with special needs children.
“Once your child turns 21, they’re on their own,” Farrell said. “All the protections that were put in place, the special education classes, all that stuff goes away, so you’re left with a young adult who is supposed to be an integrated part of our modern society and is often left behind.”
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To bridge the gap, the actor has now launched the Colin Farrell Foundation to provide support to children of adults with intellectual disabilities through advocacy, education and innovative programs.
“This is the first time I’ve spoken about this, and obviously the only reason I’m speaking is because I couldn’t ask James if he wanted to do this,” he said.
“I mean, I could. I talk to James like he’s 20 years old and has perfect English and age-appropriate cognitive abilities. But I can’t get a specific answer from him about whether he’s comfortable with all of this or not, so I have to make a decision based on knowing James’ spirit and the kind of young man he is and the goodness in his heart.”
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Farrell added that James “has worked extremely hard all his life, extremely hard.”
“The repetition, the repetition, the balance, the irregular steps. When he first started feeding himself, his face looked like Jackson Pollock at the end of the process. But he managed to eat well. I’m proud of him every day, because I think he’s a miracle.”
Of the foundation, Farrell said he had “wanted for many years to do something in the area of providing greater opportunities for families with children with special needs to receive the support they deserve, basically help in all aspects of life.”
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James, and those like him, have “earned the right to a greater degree of individuality and autonomy in life, as well as a greater degree of community.”
For now, the actor is choosing to believe “that if James knew that his picture in the backyard with me, which is not my favorite thing to do, if we did this it would help other families and young people living with special needs, he would say, ‘Dad, what are you talking about? Why are you even asking? This is obvious,'” Farrell added.
“So that’s why we did it. All this for James— all in his honor.” (People/Z-3)
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