Meryl Streep was so moved by the subject of the project that she gave her time freely and was not compensated financially.
Charlie Abrahams went from having 90 epileptic seizures per day to none after going on the ketogenic diet.
"Ketogenic" means causing ketosis, a state where the urine is high in ketone because the body is burning fat. The Atkins diet produces a mild state of ketosis, while the ketogenic diet depicted in the film involves a severe state of ketosis. Recently, Johns Hopkins researchers have reported that a milder, Atkins-like ketogenic diet may also reduce the symptoms of epilepsy.
Jim Abrahams helped set up the Charlie Foundation in Santa Monica, California, an institution dedicated to spreading the word about the ketogenic diet to major paediatric neurological centres. It was through this network that he first came into contact with the Reimullers, the family depicted in the film.
Jim Abrahams, normally a comedy director, was attracted to the project because of his own young son Charlie's epilepsy. (Charlie makes a brief appearance in the film as Robbie Reimuller's playmate.)