LeRette says he hopes people realize there's a need for continuing special needs services, which in the US tend to "just disappear" once someone turns 18
"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 Levi as 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.
"It's like, 'I'm Scott. I'm an alcoholic', but I'm going to change that now to 'I'm Scott. I'm a bad dude,'" he quips.
His son Austin "absolutely" helped him on his journey to sobriety -- and there's a specific moment in the film that rings especially true.
"Zach [in character as Scott] says, 'I wish I could love anything as much Austin loves everything,' and that is something that I find myself thinking about every day," LeRette says. "Because it's exactly right. Austin would rather gravitate to the worst of human beings to get to know them. Because he thinks everybody's redeemable."
That belief in redemption is a key plot line where Austin (played by Jacob Laval), manages to turn his younger brother Logan's bully, Tyler, into a friend -- a guy who LeRette says is still a good friend of the family's to this day and is even going to the movie premiere.
As the centerpiece of the film, the "unbreakable boy" Austin is "this charming, hilarious, happy-go-lucky young man," LeRette says. He also "can't stop talking" -- a characteristic that triggers a pivotal moment in the film.
But "unbreakable" is not just a reference to Austin's spirit, but to his osteogenesis Imperfecta -- aka, brittle bone disease, which causes bones to fracture or break easily. The disease led to multiple emergency room trips and innumerable broken bones. "We lost count," LeRette tells PEOPLE. "The only real major bone that he hasn't broken is his femur. He's had fingers, toes, tibia, fibula, ankle, coccyx, ribs, shattered his elbow, sternum. He's broken his back twice. His skull fractured a few times, his nose. Teeth."
At first, he says, "we were so protective. But we just said, 'We just got to take the bubble off.' And we just kind of let him go," he says. "And it was a really good thing that we did. He's so self-limiting and self-regulating, and he went almost a year without breaking a bone."
Another example of Austin being Austin is the jester hat he wears in the movie -- and in real life. The hat was a gift from his cousin Wendy. "It's not a prop. He wears it all the time -- at least a few times a week," LeRette says. "I wish I had half of that self-esteem to not care what other people think about the shirt I'm wearing, the hat I'm wearing. And be as comfortable in your own skin that it doesn't bother you."
Austin's "the biggest cheerleader of anything," including the movie, but LeRette hopes people walk away from the film understanding more about living and loving kids with special needs. "The world in general, our country needs so much help with services because when a child turns 18 or 21 [for] special needs, the services tend to just disappear -- I mean, overnight. Boom. Stop. Period. They're gone."
The family has struggled to find the next steps for Austin. "In terms of even semi-independent living, it's so hard, and he wants that more than we do," LeRette says. "He's 30. He'll never drive -- and it's not because he couldn't physically do it, but it's because he would fall in love with the song on the radio and he'd crash. People need services. It's a challenge."