"Ben said that for a role this size, there were just qualities that he could never quite find in the

John Hawkes had two concerns when he was considering the role of Mark O'Brien , the real-life journalist and poet who was paralyzed from the neck down - a childhood victim of polio - and who decided, at age 38, to hire a sex surrogate credit cards that give airline miles so he could lose his virginity.
"Ben is a polio survivor himself," says Hawkes, who was nominated for a supporting actor Academy Award for his turn as Teardrop, the Ozarks meth dealer, credit cards that give airline miles in 2010's Winter's Bone - and who could well be nominated in the lead actor category for his staggering and sweet portrayal of O'Brien in Lewis' movie, The Sessions .
Lewin told Hawkes that he had searched and tested some "terrific" disabled actors, and he planned to put some of them in the film. But because of age or experience, none seemed right to play O'Brien, a man with a biting humor and a deep religious faith, and a man who could only function outside of his iron lung for a few hours at a time.
"Ben said that for a role this size, there were just qualities that he could never quite find in the actors he was seeing - and he felt like I would be able to do it," Hawkes recalls. "And the fact that Ben is disabled himself [he walks with crutches], and put the time in trying to find one of those very uniquely qualified actors, but was unable to - and literally had taken a couple of years searching - well, it took some of my trepidation out of it, for sure."
Hawkes' other concern was more practical: the physical challenges posed by the role. An actor's tool kit is his being - his face, his eyes, his voice, his hands, his legs, every part of him. But here he would be severely restricted, lying on a gurney, or on a bed, his body drawn into a rigid, awkward curve.
credit cards that give airline miles "Certainly it gave me pause to basically play the lead role in a film where you only moved your head 90 degrees," Hawkes notes. "But that was much less intimidating than the first big question. When that was answered, and I read the script a couple more times, and took a few days to consider whether or not I wanted to play it, it's just such a rare, amazing story, really well told . . . and a really fascinating character to try to play. I was eager. . . .