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American Morning

Interview With Christopher Reeve

Aired October 14, 2002 - 07:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As an actor, he soared in his role as Superman, but the real heroism in Christopher Reeve's life is found off the screen. Reeve has just turned 50, and he has a new book out. It's titled, "Nothing is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life."
The riding accident seven years ago now, the riding accident that left him a quadriplegic, but the actor, as you know, has never given up. He's now an activist for stem cell research.

He invited Paula Zahn into his home and talked about the challenges and the dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): You have made some amazing progress physically in the last year.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE, ACTOR, DIRECTOR, ACTIVIST: Well, actually, it's all been kept a secret, because it started in November of 2000. And all the way until May of 2002, I was involved in intense exercise. And when I was first injured, I could only move my shoulders a little bit. And now, I can straighten out my legs, I can move my feet, I can open up my arms, I can move individual fingers.

But I think in order to do what I've done, you need a lot of help. You need equipment, you need people to put you on the equipment.

ZAHN: Given, though, what you've said about the resources that are required, the number of people that are required to keep up a routine like yours, what kind of hope does your recovery offer for other spinal cord patients?

REEVE: Well, the fact is that you can get it down to being able to do it with your own family. The main thing is I want people to see the benefits, I want people to see that just at the very, very minimum, all of this exercise I've been doing has kept me out of the hospital for four-and-a-half years.

ZAHN: And, when you feel your body doing these things that you never thought you'd be able to do again, is it a feeling of triumph?

REEVE: No, it's a feeling of like more, I want more, I want more.

ZAHN: Right after your accident when you first regained consciousness, you and Dana made an agreement. And essentially, she said if you agreed to try to fight and to try to live and life was unbearable two years down the road, she would help you end your life. Did you ever get close to making that decision?

REEVE: No, that was really put to rest in the first week of my experience in intensive care. And it really was when Dana and the kids came into the room, and I had said, it might be better to let me go. And it was absolutely clear they wanted me to stick around.

But in my autobiography, "Still Me," which is still available by the way at your local bookstore, but I never talked about the consequences. I never talked about how hard the work would be to live up to saying, OK, I'll stick around.

ZAHN: In this new book, which is also available at bookstores around the country, you talk a lot about faith and religion. Do you ever think your injury was part of God's divine plan for you?

REEVE: Yes, I don't think it was, because I think life is just too random for that. If this was his plan for me, I don't understand what was his plan for all of the people killed on 9/11? And where God comes in, where any (ph) resources that we may not have known anything about come in, is what you do after the event, you know. And we saw that absolutely with 9/11, and I found out a lot about it after the injury in building what I call in the book, I call a new life.

ZAHN: Do you still think about walking someday?

REEVE: Oh, sure. Actually, I'm not even thinking; I'm planning. You know, and basically, I started exercising to maintain my health, but also to be ready for a cure if and when it comes. But I think that science and exercise can meet halfway. And certainly, the next thing we need to do is, particularly in this country, is to get politics out of the equation.

ZAHN: Do you have any hope that you can remove politics from the stem cell debate?

REEVE: Yes, by education, and I've had the opportunity to speak to many senators and many representatives, and particularly in the issue of nucleus transplantation, which is known as therapeutic cloning.

But I'm amazed to find out how many of our elected officials do not know or did not know that this nucleus transplantation involves an unfertilized egg. It's not destroying the union of the male and female. It's an unfertilized egg that just sits in the lab.

ZAHN: Is that the key to your complete recovery?

REEVE: I think that's the key that's probably the best hope for people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, leukemia, cancer -- you name it.

ZAHN: When people look at you, they view you through all kinds of prisms of reference. Just a final thought on what you want people to think when they see you, when they hear you talk. REEVE: Oh, to just please keep an open mind to what I'm talking about, particularly if you're a hard-core opponent. You know, as I've said, you know, in any opponent, you know, just please spend one hour in a wheelchair like this, and not even able to scratch your nose or shift your weight. And then, let's resume the conversation after that.

You know, you can't legislate compassion, but that's what's needed most. And what politicians have to do is just imagine what it's like to be somebody else. If we all did that, man, we could change the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It's hard not to feel compassion for him, isn't it? A brave guy, Christopher Reeve.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired October 14, 2002 - 07:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: As an actor, he soared in his role as Superman, but the real heroism in Christopher Reeve's life is found off the screen. Reeve has just turned 50, and he has a new book out. It's titled, "Nothing is Impossible: Reflections on a New Life."
The riding accident seven years ago now, the riding accident that left him a quadriplegic, but the actor, as you know, has never given up. He's now an activist for stem cell research.

He invited Paula Zahn into his home and talked about the challenges and the dreams.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): You have made some amazing progress physically in the last year.

CHRISTOPHER REEVE, ACTOR, DIRECTOR, ACTIVIST: Well, actually, it's all been kept a secret, because it started in November of 2000. And all the way until May of 2002, I was involved in intense exercise. And when I was first injured, I could only move my shoulders a little bit. And now, I can straighten out my legs, I can move my feet, I can open up my arms, I can move individual fingers.

But I think in order to do what I've done, you need a lot of help. You need equipment, you need people to put you on the equipment.

ZAHN: Given, though, what you've said about the resources that are required, the number of people that are required to keep up a routine like yours, what kind of hope does your recovery offer for other spinal cord patients?

REEVE: Well, the fact is that you can get it down to being able to do it with your own family. The main thing is I want people to see the benefits, I want people to see that just at the very, very minimum, all of this exercise I've been doing has kept me out of the hospital for four-and-a-half years.

ZAHN: And, when you feel your body doing these things that you never thought you'd be able to do again, is it a feeling of triumph?

REEVE: No, it's a feeling of like more, I want more, I want more.

ZAHN: Right after your accident when you first regained consciousness, you and Dana made an agreement. And essentially, she said if you agreed to try to fight and to try to live and life was unbearable two years down the road, she would help you end your life. Did you ever get close to making that decision?

REEVE: No, that was really put to rest in the first week of my experience in intensive care. And it really was when Dana and the kids came into the room, and I had said, it might be better to let me go. And it was absolutely clear they wanted me to stick around.

But in my autobiography, "Still Me," which is still available by the way at your local bookstore, but I never talked about the consequences. I never talked about how hard the work would be to live up to saying, OK, I'll stick around.

ZAHN: In this new book, which is also available at bookstores around the country, you talk a lot about faith and religion. Do you ever think your injury was part of God's divine plan for you?

REEVE: Yes, I don't think it was, because I think life is just too random for that. If this was his plan for me, I don't understand what was his plan for all of the people killed on 9/11? And where God comes in, where any (ph) resources that we may not have known anything about come in, is what you do after the event, you know. And we saw that absolutely with 9/11, and I found out a lot about it after the injury in building what I call in the book, I call a new life.

ZAHN: Do you still think about walking someday?

REEVE: Oh, sure. Actually, I'm not even thinking; I'm planning. You know, and basically, I started exercising to maintain my health, but also to be ready for a cure if and when it comes. But I think that science and exercise can meet halfway. And certainly, the next thing we need to do is, particularly in this country, is to get politics out of the equation.

ZAHN: Do you have any hope that you can remove politics from the stem cell debate?

REEVE: Yes, by education, and I've had the opportunity to speak to many senators and many representatives, and particularly in the issue of nucleus transplantation, which is known as therapeutic cloning.

But I'm amazed to find out how many of our elected officials do not know or did not know that this nucleus transplantation involves an unfertilized egg. It's not destroying the union of the male and female. It's an unfertilized egg that just sits in the lab.

ZAHN: Is that the key to your complete recovery?

REEVE: I think that's the key that's probably the best hope for people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, diabetes, leukemia, cancer -- you name it.

ZAHN: When people look at you, they view you through all kinds of prisms of reference. Just a final thought on what you want people to think when they see you, when they hear you talk. REEVE: Oh, to just please keep an open mind to what I'm talking about, particularly if you're a hard-core opponent. You know, as I've said, you know, in any opponent, you know, just please spend one hour in a wheelchair like this, and not even able to scratch your nose or shift your weight. And then, let's resume the conversation after that.

You know, you can't legislate compassion, but that's what's needed most. And what politicians have to do is just imagine what it's like to be somebody else. If we all did that, man, we could change the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It's hard not to feel compassion for him, isn't it? A brave guy, Christopher Reeve.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.