Q&A with Super/Man film researcher Ella Beaumont

With the UK release of Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, Spinal Injuries Association sat down with Ella Beaumont (29), who worked as a researcher on the film.

Having previously worked on the Netflix documentary, Rising Phoenix, with directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, Ella was keen to work with the filmmakers again to share the story of Superman actor Christopher Reeve.

Reeve was involved in a horse-riding accident in 1995, resulting in a spinal cord injury that left him paralysed from the neck down and unable to breathe independently. After intense rehabilitation, he dedicated his life to disability advocacy and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation continues to research treatments for spinal cord injury to this day.

Born with paraplegia after a spinal stroke while in the womb, Ella provided a unique insight that helped the filmmakers show the realities of life with a spinal cord injury.  

What was your role on the film?

I was a researcher. I basically sat and went through hours and hours of at-home video from the family. I logged it all and then picked out what I thought were the best bits to help convey the story, and also the most shocking bits or the most interesting bits. So it was quite weird for me on Monday [at the screening] because I met his children for the first time and I felt like I already knew them because I’d seen their whole lives.

What was one thing that really stood out to you?

I don’t want to ruin it too much, but the story that most stood out for me was his wife’s story, Dana. She has come out as the hero in my eyes. We all fell in love with her through making this film. I think she’s a really unassuming character that people don’t know much about until they watch the film, and then they’ll be like ‘I had no idea that all went on’. So yeah, she she’s become my favourite person out of all of them.

How did you feel when you watched the film?

My initial thought is pride, that I was so proud because we’re seeing it on the biggest screen we could possibly see it on, and also watching other people just to see what their reactions would be.

But throughout the whole process, I feel like Christopher Reeve himself has taken me on a wave of different emotions with spinal cord injury. It’s not always been easy, I haven’t always agreed with some of his actions, and I think that’s OK. I especially had a lot of conversations with the directors about it because I said I want you to know that actually, yes, he’s a hero in a lot of people’s eyes, but a lot of disabled people wouldn’t agree with what he’s doing right now. I think the stem cell research was amazing because he changed a lot for spinal cord injury in that sense.

But I think he spent, in my opinion, the last few years of his life just pushing his body so much because he wanted to walk again and with such a high level of injury, was that realistic? I don’t really think so. In that sense, it sometimes also gave people false hope because they saw that Christopher Reeve was aiming to walk again, so why can’t they aim to walk again? When realistically, was that going to be possible at that time?

And I get it. You’ve gotta have ambition. You’ve gotta have a drive and motivation, which he certainly did. He was very much that type of character. But at the same time, how much do you give up? I know he didn’t know it was the last few years of his life, but how much do you stop living in the moment because you’re trying to always live for the future?

I don’t know this for sure, but it seems quite sad because his whole family were immersed in that too, and they could have been going off and spending loads of time as a family. I feel like Dana gave up so much of her life to help him and care for him too, and actually she deserved a life too. It was a tricky balance.

People say he was very comfortable with his disability, but I don’t know. When you’re always striving to have what you don’t have, sometimes that implies to me that you’ve not accepted what you’ve got currently.

So I don’t know. I might be wrong, but that’s how it felt for me.

The research they’ve done as a foundation and where it’s gone since has been incredible and helps so many people with spinal cord injuries. It’s still helping people and has a legacy, that is amazing. That side of it, I really, really applaud, and maybe that wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t have thrown his life into it.

Did you feel that the way that spinal cord injury was portrayed in the film was reflective of the situation in the UK?

Yeah, I personally think they’ve done a really, really good job of it, and I’m not just being biased. I think I was quite clear to them to show that actually, spinal cord injury isn’t all rosy and there are other things. Matthew Reeve, Christopher’s son mentions that there’s so much that comes with spinal cord injury like bowel care, skin care, all that kind of other care, and so that is referenced and I think that is good.

In America they have to obviously pay for all their care through insurance, and his insurance money was running out. Even Superman was running out of money, so Robin Williams chipped in to help as a good friend. You can be the most well-known actor in the world, but when it comes to a life changing injury like this, you still need money to pay for care, and I think that was portrayed really well.

Could you talk about your own injury?

So I was injured at birth. Well pre-birth, actually. I stopped kicking in the womb five days before I was born. So basically, I had a blood clot in the spinal cord, a bit like a stroke, at the lesions T1 to T4 [the thoracic spine] with a little bit of C6 [the base of the neck] as well because my left hand’s affected. I think it’s slightly different for me because I’ve never had an injury and I’ve always been paralysed since birth, so I’ve just learnt what I’ve learnt growing up. I do have a lot of experience in spinal bone injuries as well, which I think helped so, although I don’t get the trauma side of it as much, I have lived with a disability for all my life.

I’m interested to see what other people think of the film and I hope it will start people talking about spinal cord injury more.

It’d be interesting to see what their views are because I think the directors want it to be a talking point and want it to start conversations and bring up issues and then let’s see if we can find solutions for those issues.

Did you feel like they were keen to show the reality of spinal cord injury rather than just an inspirational story?

Yeah, very much. The whole way through, that was their aim, and I was banging on in their ear about it as well. Also, I think the deeper you dig into his story, there is a lot of reality in it actually.

I just want people to know that it is OK to talk about this and talk about the film and talk about what he went through. I was there with a few other people who’d had spinal cord injuries who were watching it as well, and a lot of them had had injuries later on in life and had been through that. It was almost like a little bit of PTSD bringing back that trauma, but also they felt they balanced it very well because it is a sensitive subject.

He was seen as a superhero by those who don’t know spinal cord injury, but in the same sense, those who do have a spinal cord injury saw the reality of it and appreciated that a bit more, I think.

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is released to UK cinemas on 1^st November 2024.