Christopher Reeve



March 17, 2001



BROOKE GLADSTONE: When we see a big star pitch a product, we usually wonder why -- declining box office? Tax problems? There's got to be a reason!

BOB GARFIELD:When Christopher Reeve was flying high in the '70s and '80s his agent told him that popping up on commercials could hurt his career. It was too undignified; too desperate-seeming. So if Reeve wanted to pick up some extra income between pictures he'd do as other leading players did and hop a plane to France or Spain or Japan.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: I did mostly foreign commercials. I've tried not to do too many, but you know commercials do come in very handy and-- the money is really incredible.

BOB GARFIELD:But things change. Sometimes you fall off a horse and wind up paralyzed from the neck down. That's how Reeve came to be cast as the TV spokesman for a vendor of a catastrophic coverage insurance policy called Health Extras.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: Even when things seemed terribly, terribly bleak, and you think oh, I've, I've -- you know - failed now--; I can't be a husband; I can't be a father; I can't do things-- you find out that really you haven't as long as you're there. Seems to me that if you don't provide adequate coverage by enrolling in a plan like Health Extras, that's when you've failed them.

BOB GARFIELD:That was a spot that broke last spring in which Reeve sat in his wheelchair and ad-libbed about his experience for all it's worth as a cautionary tale and boffo sales pitch. Now he will appear in a second pool of spots which as I caught up with him a few weeks ago, he was filming in a Queens, New York studio.

WOMAN: And action.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: There's something you never even think about but-- in just a matter of seconds your whole life can change.

BOB GARFIELD: Reeve, needless to say, is the ideal spokesman for a product like this -- a product that is meant to minimize at least the financial devastation of a catastrophic illness or injury. Reeve was rich and well-insured when he was injured, but soon tapped out even his ample resources. So when Health Extras approached him, he didn't hesitate.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: To caution people, to warn them-- that a serious illness or a catastrophic accident can tap into anybody at any time, and if you're not prepared for it, you can really be in big trouble, and most people don't think about that.

BOB GARFIELD:The Health Extras campaign was a gem --poignant and direct without cloying sentimentality or crass scare tactics. But Reeve needn't cry catastrophe to be a potent endorser. As a tragic hero who has touched hearts worldwide, he is an attractive candidate for any advertiser seeking to exploit viewers' sympathy and attention. Key word: exploit.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: Being over-exposed or-- exploited is certainly something that-- I'm on guard against at all times. You have to strike that delicate balance. There are many things that are very irrelevant. How I spend my time and values and what I take on-- these are things I, I approach with more consideration.

BOB GARFIELD:Even, he says, pitching an investment firm like John Nuveen & Company. Maybe you remember the Super Bowl ad of a year ago when Reeve, depicted at some indeterminate point in the future was seen via special effects magic to walk! ANNOUNCER IN COMMERCIAL: And in the years since the New Millennium, the world has seen such progress. In 2004, the tide was turned against AIDS....

BOB GARFIELD:The selling proposition is long forgotten --something about investing in our future -- but the ad created an uproar. First, many victims of spinal cord injuries somehow missed that the scenario was futuristic and wondered how Reeve got to the front of the miracle cure line ahead of them. And then there were others, others like me who found the ad obscenely exploitive of viewer emotions and of Chris Reeve himself.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: I would not have participated in that commercial if it was-- irresponsible. In other words if it were just-- a pie in the sky fantasy. The premise was some time in the future - 10, 15 years from now - that I would be walking again. I checked with at least five of the best researchers in the world --would I be overstepping the bounds? -- and--giving people false hope, and I got their total support. I don't think I could go out with as much enthusiasm if there really was no hope.

BOB GARFIELD:Yeah, but to peddle bond funds? Reeve says people's mistaking the ad for documentary was ludicrous. Agreed, but more ludicrous than his justification for Nuveen invoking quadriplegia?

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: It's going to take people investing in companies-- pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies-- to then be affluent enough to help-- fund the research towards a cure.

BOB GARFIELD:The very fact that people like me have felt free to chastise him for bad choices gets to another peculiarity of his TV presenter role. Whereas once Christopher Reeve made decisions based purely on self-interest, now he must consider his role as a spokesman for those with disabilities.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: I would be-- very remiss if I didn't fulfill the, the, the position of-- being a, a spokesman for people, and not only disabled with-- spinal cord injury but MS, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's -- because in the last couple of years the research has led science--scientists to the discovery of common approaches to multiple diseases. So how could I not come forward and do something?

BOB GARFIELD:He has embraced this responsibility with astonishing vigor and enthusiasm. Partly, he says, out of this sort of noblesse oblige and partly out of a deeply-held belief in the hope held out by medical technology. Suddenly the public has a proprietary stake in his image beyond what he ever experienced as a movie star!

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: Well, I think it would be the same-- if you were to run for office - that-- the whole context of your life changes to what you're allowed to do-- publicly and privately. You've got to think carefully every move you make.

BOB GARFIELD:This has other benefits of course such as the opportunity to influence, inspire and touch other people's lives for the better, and it yields personal psychological dividends as well.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE: Yes. The antidote to feeling sorry for yourself and listlessly staring out the window mourning your past life and all the fun things you used to do is something that, that a lot of people-- fall into, but with the opportunity to lobby in Congress and to-- to run a, a foundation that was-- that - that gets money to scientists -- that - that really is a lifeline -- that and the love of my family.

BOB GARFIELD:Christopher Reeve would say that he is doing well by doing good. It's not what he would have chosen, but as I was leaving, he quoted a John Lennon lyric -- actually a good slogan for an insurance company! He said life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans. [MUSIC] 58:00

BOB GARFIELD: That's it for this week's show. On the Media was produced by Janeen Price, Katya Rogers and Alicia Zuckerman; engineered by George Edwards and edited by Brooke. We had help from David Serchuk, Kathleen Horan and John Keefe.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Mike Pesca is our producer at large; Arun Rath our senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. This is On the Media from National Public Radio. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield.