EXCLUSIVE: Akiva Goldsman won an Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, his screenplay detoured from Sylvia Nasar’s biography to the story of her genius mathematician husband John Nash. Depicted deciphering Soviet-planted hidden media messages for the Defense Department, the duty turned out to be a symptom of schizophrenia. That was a mild foray into the human mind compared to The Crowded Room, the 10-part Apple TV+ series Goldsman created and was showrunner on. Tom Holland stars as a young man whose erratic behavior was the result of a false reality triggered by a mind that fractured into multiple alter egos. Inspired by the Daniel Keyes book The Minds of Billy Milligan, Goldsman changed facts to create a fictionalized story that would be hard to believe had it not happened. What Goldsman hasn’t discussed until now is how much of the narrative was informed by his own memories of being molested as a child by a family friend, through his formative childhood and teenage years. There is truth among fiction that has sparked strong reactions from fellow trauma sufferers. Buckle up.
