Before the Netflix documentary “WWE: Unreal” launched this week, a question many likely had was how much (or how little) access the show would actually get to the behind-the-scenes workings of professional wrestling.
Director Chris Weaver remembers being warned ahead of time by Paul Levesque that some of the company’s “old heads” might push away the documentary crew, making it tougher to capture the true inner workings of the company.
But, as he explained in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Weaver didn’t feel as though he actually ran into such issues when shooting the five-part series.
“I was pleasantly, I think, surprised is the word, that everybody we worked with — from the top to the performers to the executives, to the crew on the ground, the day-to-day people — everybody was extremely warm and welcoming,” Weaver told THR. “Everybody we asked for ended up in the show.”
Weaver explained that WWE never gave them a “hard ‘no'” about any requests, although he remembers getting one specific warning about where he should shoot while scouting an event late last year.
“Somebody had kind of said, ‘Listen, that’s the locker room. Don’t go in the locker room unless a wrestler tells you to come in the locker room,'” he recalled being told. “So that was sort of the only place I can remember [being warned about]. And again, it wasn’t, ‘Don’t go in there,’ but it was like, you’d be wise to be careful, because you don’t want to turn off somebody in there.”
Weaver had a wide-ranging chat with THR, including a discussion on whether he believes any WWE talent had turned their emotions up a notch for the cameras. “My impression was we’re getting the authentic side of these people,” he said.
