INTERVIEW: ‘Untold’ returns to Netflix with more in-depth sports stories
Photo: Untold’s season two opener looks at football player Manti Te’o and the girlfriend who didn’t exist. Photo courtesy of Netflix / Provided by press site with permission.
Untold, the successful sports documentary series from Netflix, has returned to the streaming network with a second season of episodes. This time around co-creators Chapman and Maclain Way explore everything from the AND1 company to the saga of football player Manti Te’o and the “girlfriend who didn’t exist.” The Way brothers employ a team of filmmakers to help with these new episodes, and they actually directed one themselves: the fourth entry, “Race of the Century,” which is a chronicle of the 1983 America’s Cup and a group of Australians upsetting the storied New York Yacht Club.
Viewers can check out the season two debut, “The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist,” right now on Netflix. Other episodes premiere on Tuesdays.
“Mac and I, there are a couple things that we’re really interested in as filmmakers,” Chapman said in a recent Zoom interview. “What is the narrative here? What are the twists and turns and reveals, and is there enough here for 70-80 minutes of storytelling? We’re also fascinated by real-life subjects and characters that have had incredibly unique lives and lived experiences, and diving into their psychology and what makes them tick.”
After the brothers find a great story, they call up the athletes and major players involved to see if they are willing to sit down for an interview. If they find the potential subjects to be open, honest and genuine, then a formal episode starts to come together.
“Ultimately as viewers, Mac and I are attracted to things that have real-life stakes and a sense of danger to them,” Chapman said. “None of these are puff pieces. None of these are branding pieces. Every time someone puts on Untold, we want people to know that it’s going to be a thrilling roller-coaster ride.”
Chapman added that Untold season two has benefitted from Untold season one because potential subjects can stream the earlier episodes, focusing on Mardy Fish, Caitlyn Jenner and others, and come to the realization that the Ways are serious about their storytelling.
“That’s been a huge help for other athletes seeing how Untold handles these more complex and nuanced stories, and that’s been a real benefit,” Chapman said. “There’s a ton of sports media, but most sports media is based around 30-second sound clips or a quick locker-room interview. And it doesn’t quite have the runway to really do a two or three-day deep-dive interview with the subject. I think that’s what we can offer them. We spend a lot of time with our subjects. We get to know them well, and then we spend two to three days doing these really, really long-form interviews, which are kind of similar to a deep-dive podcast interview of sorts. I think that allows them to know that they can trust us to get the more nuanced intricacies of their life and their story.”
Mac agreed with his brother, adding that when an athlete agrees to be profiled on Untold, they are essentially agreeing to sit down for (potentially) the longest interview of their lives. This, the Ways believe, is a huge selling point.
“Really that’s just us trying to get as much clay as possible to mold this into the best version of the story that can be told, but also know that there’s an entire team of people behind here that are going to work on this for at least a year or 18 months or sometimes even two years,” Mac said. “And we’ll work on them every single day in the interest of trying to make these things as great as we possibly can. I think that kind of appeals to the work ethic that athletes have had to develop in their life. I think that they understand the commitment that we’re making on our end, and so there’s really no value to arm-twisting anyone into doing something that they’re not going to do, that they’re not going to want to talk at length about because then the product itself can suffer. But part of that conversation with them is highlighting just how much time and energy will be put into this, all in the name of trying to make something really great.”
The Way brothers chose “Race of the Century” for the episode they would personally direct because they were fascinated by this often-unknown tale, its setting in the 1980s and the classic underdog story at its heart.
“There was a couple things with ‘Race of the Century’ that really intrigued Mac and I,” Chapman said. “It’s not a battle of athleticism, but it’s a battle of wits. It’s your country’s smartest minds versus our country’s smartest minds. We’re going to engineer and build a yacht, and then we’re going to race it to see which one is fastest. That was super-intriguing to Mac and I. The other thing is we’re huge fans of those fantastic ‘80s sports movies like Rocky … and to have the opportunity to do something like that with the documentary genre — a really fun, throwback underdog story — was super-enticing to Mac and I.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Untold, co-created by Chapman and Maclain Way, is now streaming on Netflix. Click here for more information.
