Was it a choice or did you just happen into the world of documentary or was it something you always loved?

I...

I'm not one of those directors who, like, at age five was shooting with a Super 8 camera.

I, in college, started to appreciate narrative films, but more as a viewer.

I took a contemporary Russian cinema class and was watching Tarkovsky films.

And there was something to the art of cinema that was attractive to me.

And my senior year, I took a documentary course.

Do you sort of start working right away? Like, can you just tell me what it literally looks like at the beginning?

Was that the angle that you had in mind when you set out?

Uh, we have an angle in mind.

You know, I- I didn't know that much about Rafa.

Um, you know, I- I think like a lot of American, even tennis fans, you know, he's always been sort of an enigma.

You know? Uh, he has not been the sort of household name.

Um, you know, he doesn't, you know, speak English that well.

He- he's never really been someone who's wanted to be a global celebrity.

Mm.

And Zach, sorry for the interruption.

Yeah, I remember in the car after you had the news, uh, you know, of the MRI that you had a tear, I was, I was the one in the, in the car filming and just remembering the feeling of like, "This is important, but also I just wanna jump out of my skin because I have no idea if I'm, you know, literally adding insult to injury here by just being in his presence." And but I think the, the amazing part was, you know, you never stopped us.

You know, you never said, "I don't, you know, I don't want the ca-" Like, when the cameras were rolling, like as you do with, uh, in tennis, like, you, you know, you went 100% in.

And I, I feel like it's such a rarity in, you know, the, the, the sort of the world of, of people of his profile, uh, to be able to, to have that kind of trust.

And it's, it's, it's something I think that because we experienced that within the first few weeks, there was a, a, a bond created between, I think, the team, which I had a great team, um, and Rafa's team.

We were all traveling together through the season, and so it gave us time to get to know each other.

Um, it made the process easier.

Mm-mm.

And the contest of wills.

Yeah, it's really a romantic, I think, sport as well, because you have this... arena you know and this sort of in in some ways like a boxing match i know there's just a kind of you know it's why writers some of the greatest writers have written about boxing you know again it's the vulnerabilities are exposed uh it's so important it's just one person versus the other and i think tennis has that and i think it allows you know as a director you to kind of be a little bit more, I think, romantic with the, how you present these things and use, you know, bigger music and, and kind of give it a larger than life feeling because sport, I think is one of the few things remaining that sort of engenders that kind of emotional, uh, you know, revving up of of um you know people's senses and rafa is extremely passionate and that's why he loves you know the sport so much and i don't know there's something kind of beautiful about that that hopefully is infused in in in the series

Are you a tennis player? And did you get to hit with Rafa?

I am a tennis player.

My dad actually was on the freshman team at Stanford back in...

I mean, John McEnroe went to Stanford.

So that's a good school for tennis.

He'll probably be upset that I revealed that fact because he...

I must ask you a question I'm sure some people think about these type of sporting documentaries, which is they might say, "This looks quite like PR rather than editorial." I'm not saying that specifically about your documentary, but what do you say to concerns that they believe stars are using programs such as this to shape their narrative?

I think it's an accurate assessment of, of the media landscape, certainly in the US, that we're living in.

I think, you know, many of these documentaries become opportunities for a celebrity to sort of create their own myth and, and legend and story.

I will say that Rafa, to me, uh, felt different in that he's not a producer on the film.

He didn't have final cut.

And he, uh, you know, as I've mentioned, was, was open basically with everything.

You know, he didn't really have anything to hide, and in kind of this old-school feeling way now, you know, really allowed the cameras in, um, and, and never, you know, said no.

And finally, Zach, I must ask you, what was the feeling like when you sent over the file of the finished film and awaited the verdict?

Just tell us first, why do you think Nadal decided to allow access at the point that he did?

Well, at the time, he had sort of announced that it was his last season, and he felt the best way to understand sort of who he was was to actually watch him play.

I think he felt... that in a lot of ways, I agree, his actions speak a lot louder than his words.

And the only way to sort of see how he plays, how he interacts with his team, his family, was to be filmed while still playing, as opposed to it being a total look back at his career.

And

But what do you say to concerns that they believe stars are using programs such as this to shape their narrative?

I think it's an accurate assessment of, of the media landscapes, certainly in the U S that we're living in.

I think, you know, many of these documentaries become opportunities for a celebrity to sort of create their own myth and legend and story.

So how, how did you, how did you come into this opportunity?

I think it was luck and timing, um, probably how it is in a lot of instances.

Uh, Rafa had said no to a documentary basically since the beginning of his career.

Um, and because it was potentially his last year, his team publicist manager felt sort of, uh, like they could convince him to do it.

Um, but as is true of most things Rafa, he waited until the very, very last minute to say yes, basically weeks before he was to start the 2024 tennis season in Australia.

So I think two weeks before the start of the season, I got a phone call from a producer at Skydance asking if I was interested and if I could basically leave to go to Australia in a week.

Um, and he and I had been talking about another project at the same time.

Mm-hmm.