Charming, chatty and slightly wry, 66-year-old director Ben Lewin sits in front of me, crutches leaning against the plush armchair of his London hotel suite. A childhood survivor of polio, the filmmaker now finds himself at the forefront of Hollywood with his critically-acclaimed film The Sessions. Starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt, the drama tells the story of writer Mark O’Brien who was forced to spend most of his days in an iron lung – again, as the result of polio. A virgin at 38, Mark decided to employ a sexual surrogate. Lewin says it was this, rather than the polio connection, that drew him to the story.
“I worried people would think I was too close to the story matter and that I would turn it into ‘a polio film’, which I had no interest in. I wanted to approach it as a universal film, not just something that would resonate with individuals in iron lungs. Because it has something much bigger to say, in that it speaks to everyone’s fear about sex.”
Lewin is particularly keen on the film’s opening, which shows a badly dated ’80s film about Mark. Hitting on all the clichéd, often cringe-inducing feel-good buzzwords that are too often used when talking about people with disabilities.
“I do love that opening. I think audiences read it for exactly what it is. It seems so old-fashioned; it’s almost politically incorrect to talk that way these days. Words like ‘courage’ and ‘perseverance’ are used. It’s so patronising. It also diminishes the fact that Mark really was groundbreaking in being a poster child for independence – to live in an iron lung and still somehow control your own destiny.”
Though has mainstream Hollywood really moved on from this condescending view of disability? A shocking number of films still treat disability like a fate worse than death – literally. In Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood’s boxing coach accedes to his protégée Maggie’s request to euthanise her when an accident leaves her quadriplegic, believing she’s better-off dead.
Even in this year’s Rust & Bone, Marion Cotillard’s character tries to kill herself when she loses her legs.
“It is an interesting theme, I hadn’t really thought about it before,” muses the director. “Though I have experienced it personally – I had a friend who became extremely ill and was very debilitated by the illness. They told me they wanted to give up. They wanted to die. And I was so angry, I really did rail against that idea that because your body is weaker your life is somehow worth less. That maybe it’s not worth anything. I understood then that it is hugely different for people who were able-bodied all their life to feel that sense of loss; that they can’t control or trust their own body. It’s a huge shock that almost feels like a betrayal. I suppose most films about disability cater to that. I can’t relate to it. So I’m glad to show a story where, in a way, having a disability forces the character to make the decision to actively engage with the world, not give up on it.”
And engage with the world he does. Though Lewin says Helen Hunt and John Hawkes were trusting and game when it came to the sex scenes – filmed without rehearsal, to capture the slight awkwardness of the encounters – Lewin admits he was worried about how much to portray on-screen.
“One of the biggest surprises to me was that when I initially read Mark’s article I was bowled over by how explicit and full-frontal it was.
However, when I wrote it in script form, sometimes it made me cringe. How can you show an ejaculation on screen? That’s just too much information! Initially Bill Macy’s character of the priest intrigued me as a spiritual counsellor. But he became a device to move the really explicit stuff from the bedroom into the confessional, so that it wouldn’t make you’d cringe but his reaction would make you laugh. That developed unexpectedly during the writing.”
Using a priest to help portray sex in a positive light? It appears The Sessions may be groundbreaking in more ways than one. Disappointingly, however, the picture failed to secure an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, though Helen Hunt did secure a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. But when it comes to awards, it seems that Lewin couldn’t be bothered.
“Honestly – and here’s where I show my age! – I find it a bit tiring. I don’t understand why it needs to be so gladiatorial. Everyone competing and campaigning and advertising their strengths and fighting it out for a golden statue, it doesn’t really interest me. If working on this story taught me anything, it’s to enjoy the moment, so I’m just glad to be doing what I’m doing.”

The Sessions is in cinemas from January 18.