Trivia / The Sessions

• Approval of God: The real Cheryl Cohen-Greene was a big supporter of the film and met with Helen Hunt several times prior to production.
• Billing Displacement: Helen Hunt and William H. Macy were given equal billing with John Hawkes on much of the promotional material for the movie. While a case could be made that Cheryl is a co-lead with Mark, Father Brendan is very clearly a supporting character.
• California Doubling: One part of California stands in for another: the film is set in the Bay Area but was filmed in and around Los Angeles.
• Completely Different Title:
  • In Sweden, the film was called "Mitt längtande hjärta", meaning "My Longing Heart".
  • In Spain, it was called, "The Six Sessions of Sex", which is a Non-Indicative Name since Cheryl and Mark only end up having four.
• Dawson Casting: Mark O'Brien was 38 years old during the period in which the film takes place. When it was released to theaters in 2012, John Hawkes was 53.
• Disabled Character, Disabled Actor: Averted for Mark since John Hawkes is able-bodied, but played straight with a few of the minor characters, such as the woman who lets Mark and Cheryl use her home for their first couple of sessions.
• Doing It for the Art: Helen Hunt eagerly signed on to do the film in spite of its being a low-budget indie that required her to spend most of her screen time, in her words, "naked beyond just naked." In subsequent years, she's often cited The Sessions as the movie she's most proud of (in addition to the two she wrote and directed), due to its messaging regarding sex positivity and body acceptance.
• On-Set Injury: John Hawkes avoided exercising before and during filming. He also taped a piece of foam to his back to simulate Mark's curved spine, which led to a severe disc injury to his back that permanently affected his own spine.
• Playing Against Type:
  • John Hawkes is generally best-known as a character actor who tends to play menacing and off-putting supporting roles in movies like Winter's Bone and Martha Marcy May Marlene. Here, he's the likable, good-humored protagonist.
  • William H. Macy is usually cast as the morally ambiguous Chew Toy. Father Brendan, his character in this film, is kindhearted, understanding and open-minded—and nothing bad happens to him.
  • Statuesque Moon Bloodgood, who worked as a cheerleader and a model in Real Life, plays Mark's decidedly unglamorous Deadpan Snarker assistant Vera.
• Playing with Character Type: On several other occasions, most notably her Oscar-winning turn as Carol Connelly in As Good as It Gets, Helen Hunt has been the Nice Gal who acts as a Living Emotional Crutch for a man with a disability of some kind. On the other hand, the rather revealing aspects of playing Cheryl were something of a departure for her.
• Reality Subtext: The titular sessions were shot in chronological order, with Helen Hunt and John Hawkes only getting to know one another as filming was happening.
• Write What You Know: Like Mark, writer/director Ben Lewin was physically handicapped by a childhood case of polio, although not as severely.
• Working Title: During production and early festival screenings, the movie was titled The Surrogate, though this was changed to The Sessions by the time of its theatrical release.

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