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An interview with Christopher Reeve

An A&E interview with Christopher Reeve, director and executive producer, on the set of "The Brooke Ellison Story."

How did you come to direct this story?
CR: Howard Meltzer, who is one of the other producers on the film, became aware of Brooke Ellison when she graduated from Harvard in 2000, and thought it would make a really good film. He approached me about it because he and I had been talking about other projects previously that hadn't come about. We thought that this would really work. So I remember coming over in the summer of 2000 to Long Island to meet the Ellisons.

We hit it off right away, and just decided that telling their story would really make a good film. This is before they had written their book. The film in a way is based on the book that Jean and Brooke wrote, but it's really based more on getting to know them. And particularly the work of Camille Thomason, our writer, who has spent hours and hours and hours for a long, long time on the phone with all of them, getting to know them more and more. It was a fairly long process, because Brooke graduated from Harvard in 2000 and we're making the movie now in 2004. But it takes awhile for things to gel, and for scripts to develop.

My point of view is that if all the elements don't come together in the right way, then it really isn't worth doing. Because it just takes too much time and it's too much trouble. It's too difficult.

You know, we can't always pick and choose everything we do. Sometimes you just have to take a job because you need a job. But fortunately, every now and again, a project comes along where you just feel that it is not a job. This is just something we need to do. And I think everybody involved in the film feels that way.

What have been some of the challenges you've had to overcome while shooting this film?
CR: Well, one of the big challenges was that the casting happened really quite late; right before production. We were still casting major roles within weeks of our start date. And particularly for Lacey Chabert, who plays older Brooke, and for Vanessa Marano, who plays younger Brooke, there was technical training in how to be paralyzed. Learning to drive a wheelchair, learning how to be absolutely still. You know, learning, learning, learning about the reality of paralysis, because one wrong move, one thing that doesn't look real will absolutely ruin the whole effect.

I was concerned we weren't going to have enough time. My initial plan was to cast younger and older Brooke back in May and have at least a couple of weeks rehearsal with each of them, before coming down here in June to shoot. Well, it didn't work out that way. It worked out that they were both cast very much at the last minute.

But fortunately, they're incredibly talented, very fast learners. We also had technical issues that needed to be addressed. You know, to create a convincing surgery. To give all the details of living with the kind of apparatus I have. Which is real, you know, trach and a tube and a ventilator, all those things. To put them on actors who can actually breathe and make it seem that they're dependent on the ventilator, but both of them caught on really quickly.

Vanessa who is only 11, she learned to drive a wheelchair faster than I did. When I was in rehab, it took me weeks. And she picked it up in a few days. I was really impressed by that. We started in a big room, so there's no danger for her crashing into any walls or anything. She was doing so well that she'd taken the wheelchair and gone around the hotel, and was getting in and out of elevators. You know, going up ramps and all kinds of things, just because she wanted to do more and more to get better at it.

Everyone in this cast has been so motivated and they all feel a real sense of responsibility to The Ellisons. The responsibility of playing real people who lived this incredible story and who are continuing to live this incredible life. They feel it's a privilege, but it's also something that's kind of intimidating because they really want to do it justice.

For me as a director, to have a group of actors and the crew, the technicians, everybody, to care so, so much about what we're doing, just makes my job a piece of cake.

When casting for the adult roles, primarily Ed and Jean Ellison what were you looking for?
CR: When I was casting, I was looking for actors who carried the essence of the characters. And actually, a perfect physical resemblance was not the goal. I had to build a family. A family would work on film, because we have transitions from young Brooke to older Brooke, young Reed to older Reed. That has to be pretty much seamless, otherwise the audience will fall out of their belief in the movie.

Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was always the first choice for Jean. She has the same kind of energy, sense of humor, intelligence. Just grit. We first met way back in 1985, when we were doing a play together on Broadway, and I hadn't seen her in years. But I, of course, followed her career. We were lucky to get her because she lives in London and has two kids and a lot of responsibilities. She is not free just to drop anything at any time and do a project. Also she's very picky. She only does projects that she really cares about. But fortunately, she read it and two days later she was in. So that was awesome.

Same thing with John Slattery. I see much of John's work and I've known him since the late '80s. There's a kind of just strength and simplicity, integrity that is absolutely the essence of Ed.

So that's what we were going for. And then, in finding Brooke -- both younger Brooke and older Brooke -- we wanted to make sure this doesn't get too sentimental. Looking for a sense of humor. Looking for simplicity, courage. Actresses who project intelligence.

I looked at tapes of literally dozens and dozens of possible Brookes. But there was something about Vanessa that I kept coming back to and thinking, “This is it. She's, she's the one for young Brooke.”

I'll tell you a very funny story about how she got cast. Other people on our team were favoring some other actors. And they said, “Well, we're not so sure about Vanessa.” I said, “Please, you've really got to use Vanessa.” They said, “Okay, we'll bring her back for one more audition.” So they called the house to find that the family was waiting for her car service to take them to the airport, to fly to Italy for summer vacation.

So Howard Meltzer came to me and said, “They're about to go to the airport to fly to Italy. Are you absolutely sure about Vanessa?” I said yes. Cancel the car service. Call the travel agent and put them on the plane to New Orleans. And they did. And that's how she was cast.

Now I can't imagine anybody else playing this part. Or anybody other than Lacey. There were many actresses who were very, very good, but Lacey really stood out. That, for me, was a no brainer. We had people cast from Atlanta, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. Luke Flynn, who was cast as the guy who takes Brooke to a dance, actually was driving from LA to Miami and heard there was a part in this film and stopped off in New Orleans. Went in and read and got the part. So things just kind of gelled here. You know, we've ended up with a wonderful group of actors.

Was there a particular reason you decided to shoot in New Orleans?
CR: No, the decision to shoot in New Orleans frankly really had to do with budget. We were originally supposed to go to Canada. I had mixed feelings about that, because too many American movies are made in Canada. You know what I mean? And particularly, films that should be shot in New York. This really happened around New York. Long Island. I reluctantly said, well, if we have to do that, we have to do that. I think The Louisiana Film Commission got a hold of the script, and told one of our executive producers, Howard Braunstein that they would beat the rebate.

In other words, make it about X percent cheaper to shoot in New Orleans. So, Howard called me up and said “Well, I've got good news and bad news. One is that the film's definitely happening, but we're going to New Orleans in the summer.” And I said “Well, okay.”

I was glad because it means work for Americans. You know, an all American crew and cast. I feel good about that, even though the challenges of shooting here in the summer is enormous. It's just so hot outside. June and July. Actors are out there, having to be fresh and relaxed and it's 93 degrees with 95 percent humidity. You know, it's like being in Calcutta. And they are just doing an amazing job of dealing with that. While I'm sitting inside with the air conditioning.

How does your life influence your telling of this story?
CR: Well I always had in mind, after my injury and when I made the switch from acting into directing, I thought it would be a good thing for me to tell one really good story about a family. An ordinary, American family, dealing with a devastating event, such as the spinal chord injury of a young child.

The story, I think, will reach and impact more people then me giving 55 speeches or going on national TV 20 times. So I felt that both as a disabled person and as a filmmaker, that it would be the right thing to do to tell this story. Now the next thing I should do should be a comedy. (LAUGH)

You know, this is something that I'm not going to dwell on. I think you need it to be made once. It feels important for me to try to make a contribution to raising awareness about spinal chord injuries. I mean, just in very simple terms. For example, most people don't have any idea what it takes to end up sitting in a wheelchair in the morning.

They see us in wheelchairs, but they have no idea how we get there. And what goes on behind the scenes, between the time that you wake up and you actually end up in the wheelchair. Particularly when you have a severe injury and you're dependent on a ventilator and completely dependent on other people to do everything for you.

So this movie is not just about a bright girl who made it to Harvard and graduated. It's about somebody who faced overwhelming challenges, just in getting through the day. Just in existing. And then on top of that, having lost her body, she went into the life and the potential of her mind. And made the absolute most of it.

You have made some artistic decisions that allow the viewer to fill in some of the visual blanks. What was your motivation to shoot certain scenes that way?
CR: The fact that we shot one (hospital) scene from the hallway, where you don't see what the nurses are doing, because we were running out of time that day. I couldn't go past 6:30 without costing the production company a lot of money. And so Howard Meltzer and I put our heads together and thought, why not trust the audience? Leave it to their imagination.

I think that the fact that we were out of time created a better scene than if we had time. So every now and again, you fail upwards. And, with no time, you end up with something better then if you had had time to shoot it the conventional way. That's one of those lucky accidents. I think a good film is a compilation of all the best lucky accidents that happen along the way while you're trying to make it.

Can that kind of creative decision lead to a more profound emotional impact?
CR: That's right. I also have a scene where we have a complicated surgery in which a titanium rod was put inside her spinal column to stabilize her neck before the halo was taken off. We did this surgery and you never see her opened up. There's no blood. Just a doctor reaching for instruments, cutting titanium rods, measuring. You know it's going to go into her neck.

I was really pleased, because I got a call from the editor the next day, saying that an assistant had watched the dailies and it was making her really squeamish, feeling like she was going to faint, and she hadn't seen a drop of blood. Again, leave it to the imagination.

So often, both in the theater and in film, it just seems to me that producers, directors, writers, executives, whatever, they don't trust the audience enough. But the imagination is a really powerful thing. So if you can suggest something and you can create an atmosphere and then let the audience imagine, they're going to go someplace, probably more effectively, than if you show it literally.

It's interesting, because we couldn't afford either the money or the time to do something as graphic as ER. But this movie is not supposed to be ER. It's about many other things besides that. But it's just interesting to me that if you trust people, trust their intelligence, trust their involvement, if your imaginations are engaged; they're not going to hit the remote button. That's our goal. (LAUGH)

You have an interesting moment where Brooke’s sister sits on the wheelchair.
CR: The scene in which Kysten sits down in Brooke's wheelchair and tries to stay still. I mean, her goal is to last maybe 30 seconds. Trying to imagine what it's like to be paralyzed. I shot the scene as a tennis match between Kysten and the clock, using tighter and tighter angles to build up the tension. Kysten makes it through about 18 seconds, and then she bolts and runs upstairs.

When I was working with her, I kept the mike open. And I said, “Okay, five seconds, you're all right. Now it's ten, this is starting to get really uncomfortable. Twelve. Now it's like a migraine headache. It's starting, you can't, oh, you can't, you want to move but you can't, you can't.” You know. Like let it build up, build up, and you're tick, tick, tick. “The clock, and then you can't stand it, get out of there.” And she just responded to what I was saying over the loud speaker. I think that's going to work out really well.

What do you hope the audience will come away with, after seeing this film?
CR: I think that a lot of what this film is about is summed up by things that Brooke said in her class day speech. She said most of all, I hope that what you can learn from me and my mother is never to take anybody in your life for granted. Because life is so precious. And if you can watch this film and think about your own family, your own relationships. while you're healthy, before you have to go through an event like a spinal cord injury -- and God forbid, you should have to do that -- it would be great if this film would cause families everywhere to think about how they're really doing in their family.

You know, what are the bonds? Is the love there? Are people really taking care of each other and listening to each other and communicating? We need functional families, not dysfunctional ones. When calamity hits, a dysfunctional family will fall apart. And a loving, functional family will pull together and get through it. That's the story of the Ellisons.