Chris Smith’s HBO docuseries about Richard Branson doesn’t shy away from controversies involving his spaceflight company Virgin Galactic, trying to win UK government support for Virgin Atlantic during a pandemic or inconsistencies over the airline’s environmental messaging. But for the most part, Branson focuses on everything the billionaire has accomplished in his 72 years.
Shortly before Branson became the first passenger to reach space in his starship last year, the business mogul sat down with Smith (“Daddy,” “Bad Vigiani”) to reflect on the advantages and disadvantages of being a lifelong daredevil.
“It’s important to live a full life to share,” says Branson, founder of The Virgin Group. “It is important for your children, your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren. And it is important for other people who might want inspiration.”
As Smith’s team was sorting through archive footage of Branson in preparation for a docuseries series long before the historic July 2021 flight, it took the billionaire’s flight into space to convince the veteran commander that the four-part series was worth making.
“I’ve been dancing around sharing through June 2021,” says Smith. “When I found out Richard was going up into space in a couple of weeks, it was the first time that, for me, the project had a reason to exist because I wasn’t too interested in doing a live profile. For me, there was something interesting about someone telling a story. his life before going on this space mission.”
Branson’s film features candid interviews with the businessman, his family, business partners, and journalists, as well as decades of archive and home video, all of which serve to reveal the ups and downs of a man driven to take risks in both his work and his personal life.
Fittingly, the series will debut just a week after Branson released an updated version of his 2017 autobiography “Finding My Virginity.” diverse I spoke with Branson and Smith about the final cut, dealing with criticism and asking questions about sensitive topics.
Richard, what made Chris the right director for this project?
Branson: Chris has a good reputation. We knew we were going to give up the right to say, “We really don’t like this or that,” but we just felt like we wanted to look at life (me and my family) that’s tough and good and strong. Chris seems to have delivered.
So, Chris, did you make the final cut?
Smith: yes.
Richard, you have given Chris a full pass not only to your life but also to the private British Virgin Island, which you call home. Was that hard?
Branson: It’s a risk to have an independent director that you don’t know. I have to admit, after the first four hours of my interview, I wondered if Chris was going to make a documentary about, say, boosting his reputation as an investigative journalist or if he was going to do a docu-drama. But the end result was that he dealt with the criticism and gave me a chance to respond, and that makes an even better documentary series.
Chris, this is the third doc I’ve directed that’s been released this year. You have a lot on your plate. What made you want to participate in this series?
Smith: Personally, I was curious about Richard. I was curious what I could take away from (his story) and how it would affect my life – what I could learn. I feel that with anyone you spend time with, they have things that you take with you that will hopefully make your life better.
I drew heavily on archival footage covering Richard’s various adventures and accomplishments, including a 2014 training session for the Virgin Galactic mission to space, his ocean-going boat and balloon challenges in the 1980s, and even his time as teen publisher of a student magazine in the 1960s. Did you know before getting involved in the project that all this archival material is out there?
Smith: I knew some of them were there, but it was amazing to see so many important milestones and beats covered in such an amazing way. From a documentary filmmaker’s perspective, this was the ultimate dream come true.
She filmed extensively at Richard’s home in the British Virgin Islands. Was anything off limits?
Smith: No. Nothing was off limits. we can go where we want; We can shoot whenever we want. Nobody ever said there are ground rules. So, we just imposed and were as annoying as we could be.
The fourth episode of the series delves into the recent criticism Richard has received over Virgin Atlantic’s controversial bid for government support for the airline during the COVID-19 pandemic. Was the interview as awkward as it seemed?
Smith: We could have done an entire episode on that. It was difficult to summarize one because we were limited to four episodes. So, we really tried to focus on the adventure side [of Richard] and Family Online, but we obviously wanted to cover it all. so yeah, [that part of the interview] It wasn’t nice.
Richard, was it difficult to listen to the critical comments made in the series about you and your various endeavors?
Branson: You’ve lived a long life, and you will be criticized, and sometimes that criticism is justified, and sometimes it’s just plain wrong. I think this documentary gives both sides of the story. People who watch it can judge.
One critic in the series says that your efforts to democratize space are fundamentally phony. Was there a part of you that wanted to make this document to prove the critics wrong about your space goals?
Branson: no. We did not succeed in facing any criticism. If you look at my life, I don’t think I got much criticism until the time this documentary came out, which was in the middle of COVID. that they [the crew] It came at a time when it was a really tough time, and we were in all the wrong businesses, and we were facing potential disaster in a lot of our businesses. This led to a much more interesting documentary, but it was just a fluke. It wasn’t pre-planned or anything like that.
“Branson” premieres December 1 on HBO.
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