Two years ago, Dr. Ruth Westheimer — also known as Dr. Ruth, America’s most famous sex therapist — wasn’t on director Ryan White’s radar. He knew who she was — who in America doesn’t —  but when producer Rafael Marmor called, White began thinking about Dr. Ruth's life.

“Rafi was trying to persuade Dr. Ruth to do a documentary,” White said.

“She had always turned down docs. He said, 'Do you want to have dinner with her in New York?' I think everyone would say yes. I took a red-eye from LA to NY and had dinner the next day.”

White realized immediately he had to convince Dr. Ruth, nearly 90 at the time, to allow her story to be told.

“It was the way Dr. Ruth connected to everyone … the waiters, drivers, people on the streets,” he said.

After some hesitation, and numerous proposals from other filmmakers, Dr. Ruth finally agreed to let someone adapt her memoir into the incredible documentary Ask Dr. Ruth.

The 99-minute film chronicles Dr. Ruth’s extraordinary life from childhood, through to her career at the forefront of the sexual revolution to present day. White had unprecedented access, learning and detailing some facts that even her own children didn’t know.

“She is an incredible woman,” White said.

“I didn’t truly grasp how lucky I’d be to be able to tell her life story.”

It’s a story that began in Germany at the start of World War II. Her father was taken by Nazis and, at 10 years old, Dr. Ruth was put on a train to Switzerland by her mother and grandmother as part of the “kindertransport,” the organized escape of thousands of Jewish children out of Germany.

“Dr. Ruth had kept diaries from childhood,” White said.

“Without those, it would be a much less cinematic film. I think those diaries make the film and are why we could achieve what we did.”

As a German Jewish refugee, Dr. Ruth spent her time at an orphanage in Switzerland until the war ended, when she went to Palestine. She trained to be a sniper in the Israeli army, moved to Paris to study psychology and eventually ended up in New York City. She was married three times but calls her marriage to Fred Westheimer her “real marriage.”

“The film is not told chronologically,” White said.

“It’s a deliberate move in our editing structure to achieve emotional balance with her past and height of fame.”

So how did White condense this profound woman’s life into a 99-minute documentary?

“It was agonizing,” he said.

“It’s the worst part of documentary filmmaking, especially when you’re making a documentary about a 90 year old who has lived the most incredible 90 years.”

According to White, there were many impassioned arguments in the office between himself, the producers, editors and production staff.

“There were arguments about why certain things made it in, why certain things got cut out at last second,” he said.

“The most agonizing part of that was not childhood or modern day … it was like, how do you take archival footage from the ‘80s and ‘90s and pick those moments? There were countless options to go with.”

As the final cut took shape, the decision was made to include animation that was inspired by European storybooks from the ‘20s and ‘30s. The animation helped detail aspects of Dr. Ruth’s early life.

“We began editing without animation and with general b-roll and footage from the Holocaust and World War II,” White said.

“We were editing scenes but it didn’t feel personal to Dr. Ruth. What I wanted most was for when Dr. Ruth watched those parts of the film, that it rang true and that it was authentic."

The personal touch in this documentary can be seen throughout as the filmmakers travel with Dr. Ruth to numerous places, including Israel, where they visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust remembrance memorial in Jerusalem. It’s here that Dr. Ruth finds out what happened to her parents during the Holocaust for the very first time. 

“She decided to do this,” White said.

“It was never something I’d ask her to do for the sake of the film. It was the most difficult day of shooting but I think she knew her parents’ legacy would last forever.

“Since the film has come out, she said, in some ways, this film is like a gravestone for her parents.”

Creating the film didn’t come without challenges.

“The biggest challenge was in the editing room,” White said.

“How do you achieve emotional balance in a documentary about a very famous, funny woman who is known for sex talk?”

The filmmakers used numerous clips from Dr. Ruth’s television career where she answered live callers’ questions about anything and everything related to sex.

“What’s so interesting is the content is very sexually explicit, Dr. Ruth’s show, but it was never temptation and always educational,” White said.

“It was mostly geared around helping people with a problem.”

The film portrays Dr. Ruth as being the same today as she’s been for generations: Full of life and active. But one thing you may not know about her, according to White, is she never talks about sex during conversation.

“That surprises everyone,” he said.

“Dr. Ruth has been talking about sex from morning to night in her professional career but she is just deeply interested in relationships and personal connections.”

Hulu will release Ask Dr. Ruth in theaters May 3, 2019; one month before Dr. Ruth’s 90^th birthday.