7 unexpected things we learned from the new Christopher Reeve documentary

If you’re still reeling from last year’s Michael J Fox documentary Still, buckle up. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story takes another icon of 1970s and 1980s cinema struck down by tragedy, documenting the unknown actor’s catapult to stardom as the lead in 1978’s Superman, and the showjumping champion left unable to move from the shoulders down after being thrown from a horse in 1995. 

Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, who previously made a 2018 film about fashion designer Alexander McQueen, use recordings from Reeve’s audiobook memoir Still Me (1999) and interviews with family and friends, including Susan Sarandon, Glenn Close, Jeff Daniels and Whoopi Goldberg, to chart the death-defying story of Reeve’s rise to stardom and post-accident journey, battling for survival and fighting for funding for spinal injuries and other disabilities.

The film is clear-eyed about Reeve’s struggles with family life – his eldest son recalls that his mother was virtually a single parent, because his father was away so much – and touches on some controversial aspects of his activism on behalf of the disabled community, including a controversial charity ad in which CGI was used to make the quadriplegic actor get out of his chair and walk. 

1. Reeve’s father was not proud of his son

Reeve’s father, Franklin, was a hard taskmaster. The only time he celebrated his son’s success was when the actor told his father he had been cast as Superman. Franklin ordered champagne – but then discovered his mistake. ‘His dad thought he was talking about the George Bernard Shaw play Man and Superman,’ recalls Reeve’s daughter, Alexandra Reeve Givens.

2. William Hurt told Reeve that playing Superman would end his career

Actor William Hurt, who was appearing in an off-Broadway play with Reeve (and Jeff Daniels) at the time of Reeve’s Superman audition, begged him not to take the role. ‘You’re an artist, you’ll sell out!’ Daniels recalls him saying.

3. The actor was allergic to horses

Determined to look good on horseback after being cast in Anna Karenina, Reeve took daily doses of antihistamine to learn to ride for the 1985 TV movie. If you watch it, you’ll see him at the centre of the action with the Hungarian national equestrian team. ‘I was in the middle for a reason,’ he said later, ‘because if I was about to go, they could catch me and keep me on.’

4. The accident technically killed him – twice

On the day of the accident, Reeve flatlined twice, and was given only a 50/50 chance of surviving the day. The never-before-performed surgery the actor underwent effectively reattached his head to his body. ‘Half an inch to the left – instant death,’ the doctors told Reeve’s family. ‘Half an inch to the right – an embarrassing, scary fall that you get up and walk away from.’ 

5. Reeve’s wife Dana saved his life

Reeve’s mother wanted to turn off her son’s life support machine. Unable to breathe on his own, the injured actor asked his wife, Dana, to let him go. She told him it was his decision to make, but that she was willing to go the distance if he was. ‘And then she said the words that saved my life: “You’re still you, and I love you.”’

6. Robin Williams threw him an annual survival shindig

Former roommate and Juilliard School classmate Robin Williams, bought Reeve a specially-converted van so he could attend the Oscars ten months after the injury that left him paralysed. Williams and his wife Marcia threw a party every year, on the anniversary of the accident, to celebrate his friend’s survival.

7. Reeve returned to acting – and took up directing

Two years after his accident, Reeve directed a critically-acclaimed HBO movie, In the Gloaming, starring Glenn Close and Whoopi Goldberg. A year later, he returned to acting in another TV movie, a remake of Rear Window, and later appeared in the small-screen Superman series Smallville.

In UK cinemas Fri Nov 1. Streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV+ in the US now.