The author of an autobiographical account about becoming quadriplegic, which is featured in the romance Me Before You, starring Emilia Clarke, has joined the chorus of disabled activists criticising the film.
Francesco Clark’s book, Walking Papers, describes his life after an accident in his early twenties left him paralysed from the neck down. The book was referred to in the film without the author’s knowledge.
“I was never asked if my book could be included in the movie, nor was I ever told that it would be included,” Clark told Page Six. “While I understand that this movie is based on a work of fiction, my book – and my life – is not.”
Me Before You has proved controversial because of – spoilers ahead – its seeming depiction of disability as something the quadriplegic character would rather die than endure. In the film, Clarke’s character, Lou, falls in love with Will (Sam Claflin), the disabled man she is caring for. Before they met, Will had decided he wanted to die rather than live as a disabled man. The film ends with Lou, who is from a poor family, inheriting Will’s wealth after his assisted suicide.
Francesco Clark, who is an ambassador for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, described receiving multiple emails referring to his book’s inclusion in the film. He is keen to disassociate his work from the Me Before You story.
“I’ve worked tirelessly to show people that being quadriplegic isn’t the end of your life, it’s another beginning,” he said. “While I am by no means taking a stance on the issue of assisted suicide, I feel compelled to express that I am angry to be unwittingly associated with a storyline that suggests the only option for those who sustain injuries like mine is death.”
Me Before You, which moved to the top of the UK box office this week, has been called a “disability snuff movie” by campaigners. It has been defended by its director, Thea Sharrock, who said it had been “fundamentally misunderstood” and Jojo Moyes, the author of the best-selling book on which the film is based. “I feel passionately that this should not been as some how-to manual,” Moyes told NPR.
