Interview with Ben Lewin, Director of The Sessions (2012)

Although Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) is known for bringing the best of International Cinema to Melbourne theaters for a few weeks near Spring, it is a rare occasion when a former Australian Writer/Director brings a foreign film to screen at the festival and still calls it an “Australian Story.”

Ben Lewin left Australia in the 70s to pursue a film career. After a number of successes in the overseas film and TV market over the past decades Lewin came to make his current film The Sessions. By coincidence, the film has an Australian Director, Writer and Producer, as well as an Australian Costume Designer and Cameraman. “It was one way of making the film… I’m not quite sure anymore what it takes for a film to be an Australian film, does it have to have Kangaroos hopping about in it?” says Lewin, “I could have shot it in Australia, but it was much cheaper to shoot it in Los Angeles”.

The Sessions is the story of Mark O’Brien, a Berkeley, California resident and virgin who has been confined to an iron lung after having Polio in childhood.

Though the film started as a biopic about O’Brien, it was evident from the beginning of filming (according to Lewin) that the story would arc into a statement about human connection and our need for intimacy. The result is a touching portrait of a man whose physical disability has masked his underlying issues with guilt and shame. After reading Mark O’Brien’s 1990 article ‘On Seeing a Sex Surrogate,’ Lewin was inspired to make the film. “I’m a cynical person, not easily emotionally affected, (once I had read the article) I thought to myself if only I could do as a filmmaker what he’s just done to me. That would be a real accomplishment, to just, drag out the same depth of emotion.’’

Lewin was bewildered at the film’s early screening success, as well as at the caliber of actors the film attracted (John Hawkes, Helen Hunt and William H. Macy). “From a practical perspective I thought, this film can be made so cheaply, it’s such a simple story and most films about two people in a room are intensely boring but this one is the opposite. It has so much drama that there was almost this kind of magic formula, you get an incredible amount of screen value, for very few dollars.’’

Outside of Mark O’Brien’s obvious hindrances to find a sexual partner, the film traverses masculine issues with sex, with John Hawkes’ O’Brien struggling to understand the forgiving sexual attitude of Helen Hunt’s character, the Sexual Therapist Cheryl Greene. Lewin explains further, “I’m not sure if the film is making a wider statement about male and female sexuality because I think there is a lot of common ground. The point I really wanted to make was that this film is about everyone’s fear of sex. Naturally I saw it from a male point of view…it was something I struggled with when I first read (O’Brien’s) story, I wondered, who does this speak to, does it speak to a narrow audience, you know, just people in iron lung’s? No, but I suppose the relationship in the film certainly reveals itself to show a very demanding vs. nurturing view of sex that males and females have. That understanding was one of the elements Helen Hunt naturally brought to her character.’’

Unfortunately it is still a widely held belief that disabled people do not have sexual desire, and especially not sex lives. The film quickly dispels that judgment, a testament, no doubt, to the life and character of Mark O’Brien. Lewin agrees, ‘‘What really stood out to me from his article was its sense of authenticity, you felt really inside the experience, it was an unusual experience and yet you felt the reality of it in a very intimate way.’’ Lewin pauses before realizing the magnitude of the discussion. ‘‘I hope this film does shock some people about disabled people and their sexuality. My daughter is having her first sex education classes in school now and I really would like to put that kind of lesson back on the streets where it belongs. The aim is not to create an artificial discussion about it and analyze it to death. The film is a reflection of my own thoughts. I was conscious of my sexuality from the age of seven! I was a dirty old man before I was a young man and of course it is the same for everyone else. Without making it a crusade, it’s almost like stating the obvious.’’ On a roll now, Lewin pushes things still further, “There was a way that John Hawkes and I both understood the character of Mark O’Brien as not being a saint, he’s not someone you want to feel sorry for. If I’ve got any message for disabled people it’s that I stand up for the rights of disabled people to be assholes.’’

This interview was first published by Everguide, an Australian cultural events site that no longer exists. More of Hannah Joyner’s published writing can be found at hannah-joyner.tumblr.com