The crux of any good documentary or unscripted series hinges on the subjects’ willingness to open up. Easier said than done, of course. This is true regardless of genre or subject matter, agreed some of Netflix‘s top unscripted creators, but they also say that, the more difficult or personal the discussion, the harder it can be to get anyone to talk candidly.
“Trust was a very big deal,” said Sean Combs: The Reckoning director Alexandria Stapleton, whose four-part series examines the shocking allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs and his Bad Boy empire. “It took a lot of off-the-record conversations… a lot of just listening. I mean, most of the people that I interviewed for this had spent so much of their life being outcast. After they had a falling out with Sean, they were siloed. They were silenced, and they really felt like they were alone.”
Stapleton surprised even her own fellow panelists during a conversation at Netflix & Deadline Present: The Visionaries, sharing that she spent up to 12 hours on single interviews with subjects to help them feel a sense of safety as they opened up about their painful pasts.
Stapleton was joined by Famous Last Words‘ Brad Falchuk and director-producer of Love on the Spectrum Cian O’Clery. Watch the panel conversation below and scroll down for photos from the event.
Stapleton continued: “I very much believe that trauma is not necessarily a story, and I think a lot of other people talking about what was going on just wanted to focus on the worst possible events and not build out anything else. For me, context is everything. I wanted them to understand that, as a victim, let’s understand what was great about him, what was great about this world, what did you want, what were you excited about…I think most people felt that that was freeing.”
While Stapleton’s goal was to get her subjects to delve into their pasts, Falchuk’s venture requires his subjects to think about something that hasn’t happened yet: their deaths. Since launching the project, Netflix has released Falchuk’s conversations with Eric Dane and Jane Goodall after their respective deaths. There are more already completed, but Falchuk doesn’t discuss who he’s spoken to, and no one will know these subjects have sat for a reflection on their life and death until they’re gone. That secrecy is just one of the ways he establishes their trust early on to get a yes to such a vulnerable interview.
“The biggest thing, obviously, is to get the right guest who’s really up for that particular adventure, which is talking about their own death in an honest and fearless way,” Falchuk said. “So if you have the right subject, then it gets much, much easier. Then on top of that, I like to do a lot of preparation… So it’s really about knowing them really well and them being game for it, and then creating a very, very safe space for them where they know they can say anything, and they won’t be judged. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Unexpectedly, many of those same principles apply for O’Clery, who is trying to capture an authentic portrait of dating as a person with autism. While dating can be exciting, it can also be nerve-wracking and vulnerable, especially when there are cameras around to capture it.
“We only do one interview, really, with our cast, right at the beginning. It’s the only time we bring lights in to someone’s house. Otherwise we’re just a tiny team… just really shooting in a way that hopefully captures things in a very honest and truthful way, which is the most important thing to me and to us in making the show.”
He’s also found that inviting his subjects into the process as much as possible helps ease their minds.
“Before we even get to the point of inviting someone to be part of the series, I’ll go and visit them or I’ll meet them in their home or meet their families, if that’s who they live with,” O’Clery said. “I think it’s just how we approach everything. It’s just very much, like, we’re in this together. It’s never like we’re this untouchable TV production that is gonna sign them up to be part of this thing. I think we’re always collaborative in that way.”