John Hawkes still hurting due to acclaimed performance in ‘The Sessions’

TORONTO – John Hawkes is already receiving Oscar buzz for his role in “The Sessions” as a severely disabled man who hires a sex surrogate to help him experience intimacy. But the lauded performance didn’t come without a considerable degree of pain.

The Oscar-nominated “Winter’s Bone” actor went to great lengths in order to fully inhabit the role of the late poet and journalist Mark O’Brien, who was largely confined to an iron lung after a childhood bout with polio.

“I got the idea of trying to make some sort of device that I would have to lay on to curve my spine,” Hawkes said Monday in an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival, where “The Sessions” has received a rapturous reception.

“It ended up being a soccer ball-sized piece of foam rubber that was fairly firm that would put me in a position where I was curved.”

Added Hawkes: “Yeah, there was no CGI or body double or makeup, it was just this ball that was stuck underneath.”

Directed and written by Australian Ben Lewin — himself a victim of polio — the film is based on a 1990 article by O’Brien entitled “On Seeing a Sex Surrogate.” Hailed for its frank look at sex and disability, the piece detailed the Berkeley resident’s sessions with a sex therapist (played by Helen Hunt in the film) who helped him achieve intimacy.

William H. Macy rounds out the cast as the priest in whom O’Brien confides.

After his sessions with the surrogate, O’Brien met his life partner, Susan Fernbach, who served as a consultant on the film.

Hawkes brushed aside the notion that the measures he took for the role have resulted in lingering pain.

“I’ve got some back issues and things but I think we all do, I guess,” he said.

“Anyone over 35, is going to have some pain so I’m not going to sue anyone or anything like that. But it was not good for my body to do, that’s for certain.”

“I have back issues that I didn’t have before but I’m not necessarily attributing that to the movie.”

“The Sessions” won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival as well as a special jury prize for the cast.

Hawkes has no regrets about his extreme acting methods.

“It was harder to breathe, it was harder to speak,” he says of the foam device.

“I can’t pretend that the relatively tiny — well it was a large amount of pain that I went through — (was) a fraction compared to what many people go through moment to moment.”

The Toronto International Film Festival runs through Sept. 16.