Be Well: Actor Christopher Knight's New Documentary 'Truelove: The Film'

<div class="block">Actor Christopher Knight is shedding light on a rare genetic disorder. He&#39;s behind a new documentary titled <i>Truelove: The Film, </i>which focuses on a remarkable group of people living with Williams syndrome. </div>

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We all know our first guest as Peter Brady, that pork chops and apple sauce probably didn't do it justice. But yeah, he's that loving sibling of the Brady Bunch. I love how you're trying to be a boar and Peter Brady, right? He's now taking his towns behind the scenes, producing his new documentary, True Love, which follows some remarkable people living with a rare genetic disorder. Take a look. I like love. Love. Williams syndrome has changed our life. Honestly, we're grateful for her. If the whole world could be or see through their eyes, it would be such a glorious place to be. Love is the most powerful law longing. I want people to realize that love conquered the. If everyone had Williams syndrome in the world, there would be no need for armies or anything because everybody would love one another. I wish the world could see each other the way Callie sees everybody. It's not what's wrong with them, it's what's wrong with us. Well, I am obsessed with true love. I love where it's coming from. I love love. So we would definitely want to talk more about that. But before we do, we have to talk about your legacy on television. One of the most popular television shows ever, do people still come up to you and call you Peter, uh, today, twice in succession, uh, getting into an elevator in the elevator and then, uh, right here, right here in downtown, uh, uh, you know, you're just so used to it at this point like you just have had some ears to get. Yeah, I mean, I'm part of, I feel like I'm an extended part of everyone else's family. You know, as everyone else is sort of an honorary member of the Brady family and they grew up with you, they feel like you're part of the family. But do you ever get tired of being associated with it because she's like, I've done other things with my life. People were nine years old. I was 10 when we did 11 when we did the first season. But good point. I mean, I did, that was a time when I was a younger man that I thought I would get away from it. And then it, I had an epiphany. It was like, maybe, maybe I won't. And, and what's that gonna be like trying to like, run from something that's a part of you. And then why am I running from it? Because all it really does is engender this kind of uh camaraderie, love brotherhood, whatever. Um And that ain't bad. And so instead of running from it, honor it and accept it, embrace it. Um, because it's bringing a smile to people's face and, and that's, uh, you know, all the more important today. And what about the renovation of the home? What was that like? Oh, wow, that's like a, you know, an unexpected 50 anniversary gift to us where we get to, you know, re animate a member of the family that really didn't exist, you know, so we got to actually create something real that was mostly just imagined, you know, there was a set but it was, you know, you open the front door that wasn't AAA street. That was where you hung out with Alice. And now there is. And so, and what we've taken is the place that for years, Americans would drive by thinking of as the Brady home, which to us was just a photograph of a house somewhere and turned it into the Brady home that we remember. And it was in the news recently. Big news. It just sold for $3.2 million. How did that feel? And did you go visit? Yeah, I can talk to people who bought it. Not, not, well, I, I visited it but not since it was sold. But um uh you know, actually a pretty fair price, I mean, not fair in the way that I mean, it should have sold for a little bit less based upon the the price in the neighborhood. So uh was a spend and its use is gonna be, you know, interesting because it's, um, the individual who bought it, um, is seeing it as a, as a livable piece of art. Not, not, not really a home but, but, uh, sort of a unique, um, you know, part of a heritage and, and, and art form. So I just wanted to do at least one night air BNB. So we can go sit there, you know, they can't turn it. That's the problem. It should be like really a museum, but you can't make it a museum in the middle of a residence. Yeah. Now, what is it like doing the, the podcast with Barry? Well, that's been, that was um, an out growth of having done HGTV S program because we realize that we're not in sync with our audience. Our audience is they know the show, you know, inside and out. And, um thinking even to the point that we lived in that house. Um So we thought we, we should watch the show doing a podcast, reviewing the episodes. Could be a hoot watching two post 60 year olds trying to remember. Their childhood comes with the territory that we have faulty memories. Um And, or have uh memories that, um, we're getting back in touch with that. We haven't reviewed stuff, uh for so many years that we certainly haven't watched the show and, and I think the last podcast we did, Barry said, I don't think I ever watched this show? Barry is gonna be on dancing with the stars. So how do you think he'll, do you think he'll get the mirror ball? You know, look at, there'll be no one who tries harder. This is, I mean, Barry is a song and dance guy, you know, he, he puts all of his energy and interest um in performing, you know, so he can move, you know. And, uh, uh, but II, I don't know how much of the show is rela is relative to your real ability to dance and how much it is a popularity contest. And he's sort of um not in the, the, the, you know, the center of all that social media storm, but maybe we're all going to fall in love with him again and maybe he'll end up in the middle of it. Now, let me give it a go. I do want to talk about, about true love and this, this journey, this documentary for, for everybody at home. Just explain really what you've learned in doing this. Well, True Love is the first production for former prodigy media production uh company that myself and a friend, Phil Viard, my partner put together in uh 2019 right before the pandemic. Uh And this was our initial production. It was a labor of love from the heart. Uh Phil was aware of Callie True Love, the star of our film. And um this, this wonderful gregarious uh uh disarming, charming young lady who literally changed um people as she sat with them, you know, she just has this, this warmth and this ability to connect that um, was undeniable and wanting to at least pursue as our first project, something that was potentially feel good. Um And then realizing her name is true love and that's what she does to people around her. She sort of like it's a loving kind of embrace she gives you that we should pursue her and learn more about it. We knew that she had Williams syndrome, but that meant very little to us. Neither of us knew about Williams syndrome. Uh We thought that was us. Can you explain what it is for those that are familiar William syndrome is a genetic disorder. Uh There are a number of missing genes from chromosome seven. Um So, depending on how many of those genes are missing, there's different expressions of uh of those with Williams syndrome, but it can be misdiagnosed as some other, you know, uh you know, disorder. And a apparently has been, I mean, since we started the movie and that was only five years ago. Uh the incidence rate of Williams has gone from 10,000, uh uh 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 7500 because more people have developed Williams syndrome. You're born with that, they're aware of it and they're getting tested for it. And so we're only hoping that through the movie with more awareness that more people actually are tested properly for Williams syndrome. But one of the expectations of William syndrome that we would learn in the course of doing the movie and and telling the story of true love as she met others with Williams, was that almost all with Williams will have this, this love gene, the super, the superpower of creating um goodwill and uh friendship and and bonding in their environment and they can't help but to, and that was important to see. So the movie ended up being the uplifting story, but with the message as well. And that is that our, if our lives aren't as um positive as we'd like them to be. Um we can do something about it. Matter of fact, we are probably the reason that it isn't the positive life that we want it to be because we're focusing on the wrong things. Here are people that can't avoid but to feel uh comfortable with people that are different than themselves and, and love those lovely learning about this and talking to you. Thank you so much for your time and for, for really, you know, shining a light on this so that more people can know about it. It's how can we see it? Uh It's out in streaming right now. So your favorite uh BOD platform. So Apple Amazon Google Plus you can go to True Love the film dot com and see the entire list of uh video on demand platforms that you can watch it for Christopher Knight. Thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.