Unbreakable Boy Author Scott LeRette Says His Son Austin 'Absolutely' Helped Him Get Sober: 'He Thinks Everybody's Redeemable'

The author of the memoir behind the new Zachary Levi film shares what’s really real in the movie — and calls out the need for special services in the U.S.

“Unbreakable Boy” author Scott LeRette (top right) with his family (from left) Logan, Austin and Teresa. Photo:

“It’s pretty much all out there,” Scott LeRette says about his life story, laid bare in his 2014 autobiography The Unbreakable Boy: A Father’s Fear, a Son’s Courage, and a Story of Unconditional Love.

The book — the basis for the new movie, The Unbreakable Boy, starring Zachary Levias LeRette — tells the story of the family’s at-times turbulent history: LeRette’s struggle with alcoholism, their eldest son, Austin’s autism diagnosis and his life with brittle bone disease (which his mother, Teresa, also has), the resulting financial fallout from multiple broken bones and surgeries, and more.

“As soon as we kind of let the genie out of the bottle and opened our family up to public scrutiny, it just was what it was,” LeRette tells PEOPLE, adding that one morning show host called him a “bad dude” over his struggle with alcoholism.