How the team behind Netflix’s ‘Untold’ reframed the Manti Te’o girlfriend hoax

Te’o, Tuiasosopo and the frilly 2013 hoax are the topic of a brand new two-part documentary, “Untold: The Girlfriend Who Did not Exist,” directed by Ryan Duffy and Tony Vainuku, out Tuesday on Netflix.

The story of Te’o and his faux girlfriend is a well known one, however the story of Tuiasosopo — who created the fictional girlfriend as a strategy to come to phrases along with her personal gender dysphoria — is much less so. Tuiasosopo has since come out as a transgender girl.

Although audiences could first acknowledge Te’o’s title, the documentary opens with Tuiasosopo. She takes a central function all through the 2 episodes, bringing audiences alongside on her journey of self discovery and gender identification — formed partly by her experiences catfishing Te’o.

CNN spoke with Maclain Method, who created the “Untold” collection with brother Chapman, about how the crew approached portraying Tuiasosopo’s and Te’o’s journeys as each synchronous and separate.

This dialog has been edited for size and readability.

What made you determine to give attention to Manti Te’o and Naya’s story particularly?

Once we received the information that we would be able to make extra “Untolds” and we might have a quantity two, this was a narrative that was on our literal and proverbial whiteboard of sports activities concepts. It is simply all the time been a white whale within the sports activities documentary area; it is one thing that my brother and I bear in mind very properly, simply sort of studying the information media on it and all of the noise.

We reached out to Naya and simply had an enchanting dialog along with her. It was in all probability a name that was solely going to be 15, 20 minutes, and we ended up speaking to her for 2 hours. And she or he ran us by only a outstanding journey that she’s been on, a journey of self-discovery and self-identity and the way she identifies as a trans girl.

After which by way of reaching out to Manti and speaking to him, I positively assume lots of people had approached him about speaking about this story over time. I believe there was a pile of documentary pitches sitting in his inbox over the course of the years.

I believe we caught Manti at a extremely fascinating time in his life. His NFL profession was winding down — I doubt that this may’ve been a narrative that he would’ve commented on or finished a extremely lengthy kind in-depth interview on whereas he was nonetheless energetic within the NFL. However he’d simply gotten married and simply had a child, and I believe for each Naya and Manti, neither had been fairly proud of how the media at giant lined this saga again in 2013. I do not assume they wished that media protection to be the interval on the finish of this actually lengthy sentence that was a narrative between these two people. And so I believe for each of them the chance to essentially interview at size, at deep, about this story was interesting and engaging to them. And for us as filmmakers, that is after we actually knew, “All proper, we’ve one thing particular right here. I believe we will go make this documentary movie.”

One factor that stood out to me is it is a story about Manti clearly, however you select to steer with Naya, and also you simply stated that you just really spoke to her first. However many individuals could anticipate the episodes to be extra football-focused. Why did you make that alternative to steer along with her and put her story on the forefront?

It was the place, as filmmakers, we sort of had essentially the most questions. Naya had appeared on the Dr. Phil present and had engaged with mild media performances however had by no means actually gone deep on the document and informed her complete aspect of the story.

I all the time sort of had extra questions on who’re the people who interact on this catfishing… “how did this occur, how did this come about, how was this relationship like between you two?”

(Naya) was very open, very susceptible, she informed her story warts and all. Simply listening to her motivations of why she determined to occupy this area, why create this on-line identification profile, DM and message a soccer participant like Manti Te’o, construct a relationship, have telephone calls — it was all simply actually fascinating for us and i believe that was actually the premise of why we had been so curious about talking along with her.

I am a sports activities fan however I positively thought that her a part of the story was the one which roped me in.

Yeah, and I believe additionally we do not fairly have a mandate, or we do not actually prefer to shoehorn these tales into particular thematic overarching bridges between all of our “Untold” documentaries. However I do assume in a manner, none of our documentaries, regardless that they’re sports activities documentaries, actually have something to do with who’s going to win the championship recreation, who’s going to hit the three-pointer because the clock winds down and win the sport for his or her crew. Actually, we speak about these tales as they’re simply very fascinating issues taking place off-field or off-ice or off-court. That is actually the story telling that we like to inform within the vein of doing these sports activities documentaries.

For this one, this sort of mega-big catfishing scandal from 2013, it simply appeared ripe. Sure, it’s a sports activities story, a soccer story to a level, however actually it is a story about two people who had been fairly younger on the time — I believe they had been 19-, 20-years-old after they had been constructing this relationship — and so to us they had been actually the one two people who knew what these conversations had been, that knew what their relationship was like, that knew how one another felt about each other. And so for us, it was simply actually a powerful requirement that we’d have each of them talk about this as a result of I believe that is actually the one manner you possibly can inform one of these story.

Naya’s transition journey is a big a part of this documentary, and I do know you included a disclaimer that Manti and a few of these interviewed did not know Naya is trans when referring to her. You additionally confirmed some older photographs and pictures from earlier than she transitioned. I do know generally these issues may be delicate for lots of oldsters. How did you determine to navigate that within the two episodes, notably for an viewers that is probably not as aware of transgender identification and LGBTQ+ points?

I believe that the nuanced level to make is that these documentaries take a very long time simply because they’re their very own artwork types, and a two-part documentary for us took us over two years to make. Once we first talked to Naya, the best way she spoke about her journey of self-discovery and a journey of self-identity was an evolving course of.

She now, and we’re so encouraging of this, identifies as a proud trans girl. However on the time that we had been filming this documentary, her journey was evolving to a level. So in dialogue along with her and our crew and other people which might be deeply rooted into LGTBQ issues, we mainly had an understanding that it wasn’t fairly our place as filmmakers to inform others in regards to the complicated journey that she was occurring. I believe if the documentary was beginning right this moment, contemplating the place Naya’s at, we’d in all probability be in a distinct level, however at the moment… Naya wasn’t fairly figuring out as that.

Was there something that stunned you as you all had been going in regards to the analysis and reporting course of? Something that caught out that you just hadn’t been anticipating?

I believe that these all sort of begin and cease the place you get your primary storytellers and you then begin to consider who else may have fascinating voices. We all the time felt just like the Deadspin guys may have fascinating voices to a level. Possibly nobody is aware of actually about this story in the event that they did not select to pursue that nameless tip that they’d. In order that they appeared to have a direct impression on the story, a direct impression on sure plot factors within the story and the way the story unfolded.

There’s this concept within the episodes of, you can name it lineage perhaps, the place each Manti and Naya are specializing in being an inspiration to the individuals coming after them, notably within the second episode. Was {that a} theme that you just all considered whereas placing these episodes collectively?

I believe it was simply one thing that felt real and essential in the best way that they talked about it. For each Naya and Manti, we did a number of multi-day interviews, lengthy day interviews, two to 3 days with every of them. And in the middle of that course of, it is a distinctive strategy to converse with individuals and to listen to their tales, however I believe you positively choose up on what is essential to them and what they really feel on a deep, real human degree. And I believe for each of them they spoke from the center after they talked about that and that which means. So for us as artists and filmmakers, whenever you get these interview solutions again out of your topics it actually is sort of a guiding mild and a star indirectly that encourages you to place them in your documentary movie. I believe it was simply very real from them.