A Challenge That Reeve Couldn’t Refuse

Despite the dangers of travel and his still-tenuous condition, Christopher Reeve, a much-loved screen super-hero, got on a plane and became the much-admired real-life hero of Oscar night.

“I think that setting challenges is a great motivator because too many people with disabilities allow that to become the dominating factor in their lives and I refuse to allow a disability to determine how I live my life,” Reeve said in a telephone interview from his New York home. “I don’t mean to be reckless, but setting a goal that seems a bit daunting actually is very helpful toward recovery.”

It was the nature of the request from Oscar producer Quincy Jones that ultimately persuaded Reeve to take a physical risk and embark on his longest flight since the May 1995 riding accident left him paralyzed from the neck down.

“I wouldn’t have gone that far for best costume design,” Reeve said, “though that is a worthwhile category. But I wanted this to be personal, something that I really cared about saying.”

Jones asked him to introduce a segment on movies with a social conscience and Reeve wrote his own speech, urging Hollywood to tackle more social issues on film.

“They wrote something, but I wanted it to be in my own words,” Reeve said. “They were nice enough to let me rewrite it and we worked together to pick the films. The one that I particularly wanted was ‘Coming Home’ because . . . people in chairs in movies are cast as villains or as pathetic in some way. ‘Coming Home’ was this brilliant study of a man who ended up in a chair who was a real person. I also wanted to end with the moment from ‘Schindler’s List’ where he says, ‘I could have done so much more,’ which is really what it’s like for Hollywood as well.”

His appearance inspired a long standing ovation and elicited tears and gestures of support from the likes of Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep.

For his part, Reeve, too, was overwhelmed.

“I looked out into the audience and saw so many warm and accepting faces,” he said. “After a long time in a rehab center and at home, kept in by snowstorms, it was very liberating and uplifting to be welcomed back in that way. They were so supportive of me, it felt like a homecoming.”

And that was just what producers Jones and David Salzman had hoped for.

“Christopher Reeve made a statement and the whole world heard him loud and clear: that we can do a lot more and nobody can do it as good as Hollywood,” Jones said.

Reeve’s inspiring presence and moving speech were the high point of an unusually emotional Oscars telecast on Monday.

The show’s producers said they had decided early on to strive toward that unabashed emotionalism, tempered by moments of comedy and musical numbers.

“From the very beginning we thought the most memorable aspect of previous Oscar shows were the moments of the heart,” co-producer Salzman said.

The appearance of Reeve was a study in logistics and top-secret maneuvering. Being his first live TV appearance, it carried the possibility of any number of technical problems. (Reeve breathes with an oxygen device attached to his wheelchair, enabling him to speak for only 15 minutes at a time.)

But the pair were looking for someone to deliver a message to Hollywood that would make people sit and take notice.

“When Quincy called and asked if I could do it, I said I’d think about it, but by the end of the phone call I found myself saying, ‘Yes,’ ” Reeve said. “Then I put down the phone and said, ‘What have I done?’ I checked with my doctors and they all said I was medically stable enough to do it.”

So Reeve, with a group that included five doctors and his wife, Dana, boarded a specially equipped plane supplied by Warner Bros. and headed west.

“It took two months of incredibly meticulous planning,” Jones said. “Everyone, on both sides, just put a lot of care into it and it came off perfect. He’s such a courageous man.”

Reeve’s surprise appearance was intended to be the highlight--and also the most heavily guarded secret--of the Academy Awards show. His presence was not discovered until a rehearsal just hours before the live broadcast. Then, it was announced on local radio stations, Reeve said.

“We managed right up until the very last minute to keep the secret,” Reeve said. “Me and the author of ‘Primary Colors.’ ”

Reeve said a recurring image from an Oscar-nominated movie guided him for this trip, and also inspires his recovery.

“It’s the scene in ‘Apollo 13’ where . . . Ed Harris says, ‘Failure is not an option.’ Even though they think it’s impossible, they come up with a solution in 30 minutes,” Reeve said. “I have very little excuse to feel sorry for myself. There’s so much I can do now, particularly I can work to create public demand and research funding to cure spinal cord injuries. I’m lucky I’m in a position to help.”