'Measures' family impressed by cast's passion for their story

What must it be like to see your life played out in a feature film? John Crowley knows. The father of two kids with Pompe disease, he quit his job as a biotech executive to start his own company, in order to manufacture a drug that would help save his children. His story caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal, which wrote a story about him. Then, inevitably, Hollywood got interested.

So, not long ago, Crowley took his children to see the premiere of "Extraordinary Measures," the story of their lives. He spoke recently about the surreal experience of the process.

Question: What's it like to see someone else being you?

Answer: It's different. My dad was a cop in northern New Jersey growing up, so we didn't go to a lot of Hollywood premieres. In fact, I'd never met anybody from Hollywood, so it was very different. ... I have to tell you, back then, and throughout the process, I've been incredibly impressed with the professionalism and dedication and passion that people have shown in bringing this story — our lives, really — to the screen . ... For us it's been a very good experience.

Q: Brendan Fraser plays you. Were you happy with the choice?

A: (Laughs.) Yes. Brendan is terrific. He really, really wanted to be a part of this project. He's a dad, and he's got three young kids, so he can empathize on a certain level. I think for him to play a dad in this type of situation was a special opportunity and one that he put an awful lot of effort into.

Q: Were there times when you thought, wait, this isn't right, this isn't accurate?

A: No, that's one thing they were very careful about … was to include us, really, every step of the way, and to get our feedback, and to tell us when they needed to take cinematic license and why they were compositing certain characters and condensing timelines. ... For us, as long as it captures the spirit of everything that we went through and it was something that would be factually plausible, it was something we would be comfortable with. The art of moviemaking is just that, it's an art, and I think they did it beautifully well.

Q: Harrison Ford is both a producer of the movie and a star of it, as well. What was he like?

A: Harrison's great. It was well over a year ago that we first met, and we've spent a lot of time together in the last year. He wanted to learn the science, and he wanted to know what it was like to work in a biotech company, so he came to our company, to other companies. ... Incredibly professional and dedicated, but also incredibly kind — a real down-to-earth guy.