For producers Mark Ford and Erica Hanson, their multi-part Lifetime docuseries The place Is Wendy Williams? was a undertaking that served as a drive of therapeutic and got here from a spot of assist.
The pair got here out to An Night With Lifetime: Conversations On Controversies, an FYC occasion held at The Grove in Hollywood on Wednesday, they usually spoke with ET’s Deidre Behar about their high-profile undertaking about Wendy Williams, and what it might imply for it to get acknowledged on the Emmys.
“Oh, that might imply, I feel, the world. Not solely to us, however to Wendy,” Hanson shared. “I am unable to even think about the impression that might have on her.”
Hanson mentioned that Williams — who, alongside together with her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., co-produced the movie — noticed the docuseries as a chance to “be capable to inform her story so truthfully and honestly” and to be a “catalyst for change.”
“It will be a tremendous tribute to Wendy to get an Emmy nomination for one thing she was an government producer on that allowed her to inform her story,” Ford added.
The four-and-a-half-hour documentary chronicles the occasions that led to Williams being positioned beneath the management of a court-ordered guardian in 2022.
It additionally highlights the TV character’s well being struggles — coupled with upheaval in her private life — together with fainting on reside TV again in October 2017 (which she claimed was from dehydration), revealing her Graves’ illness prognosis on her present in February 2018 (forcing her to take three weeks off) and her shoulder fracture in December 2018 and coping with a really public breakup with then-husband Kevin Hunter, whom she formally divorced in January 2020 after 25 years of marriage.
“This isn’t a simple story to look at or to inform. However hopefully we did it honestly, with integrity and sensitively,” Hanson informed ET.
“She’s nonetheless fabulous, you understand, even within the dire scenario she’s in. Wendy has an unimaginable spirit, you understand, and I feel folks can really feel that,” Ford added. “[And] she actually appreciates the love and a focus that her followers have given her due to this platform.”
In accordance with Ford, they have not spoken with Williams because the documentary debuted, however he claims that he is spoken to “people who find themselves near her, and he or she has seen the movie, and he or she’s high-quality with it, in line with the those that have spoken to her.”
They’ve, nevertheless, been in contact with Williams’ household, “And the story’s not over. I may say that a lot,” Ford shared. “We have continued to be in contact with them they usually’re very supportive of the undertaking.”
“I feel, you understand, this is not the tip of this story. There will be extra,” Ford steered. “I do not assume the world has seen the final of Wendy Williams.”
Whereas the movie was eye-opening for a lot of, it additionally drew fairly a bit of warmth on-line from some who felt it was exploitative of Williams’ well being issues and the sequence of setbacks she’s suffered lately.
That being mentioned, Hanson addressed the pushback, telling ET, ” I can perceive that it is a very troublesome movie to look at. It was a really troublesome movie to make, at instances. However I feel we have been moved to need to inform the reality of what was taking place in her life… though it was painful.”
Hanson added that Williams was additionally “very direct about what she needed to do and never do… however she actually did not have a variety of limitations.”
“Wendy is the final word truth-teller and he or she mentioned, from the very first time we sat down together with her, ‘There are not any boundaries. Ask me something, you’ll be able to movie something, I’m a public particular person, I reside publicly, that is my story,'” Ford shared. “And so we simply adopted that route — into sadly very uncomfortable locations.”
One of many extra emotional moments within the documentary got here when Angela White — who beforehand glided by the stage identify Blac Chyna — made an sudden look through the filming of the documentary.
“It was a unprecedented day,” Hanson recalled. “It was so shifting and I used to be so touched by how delicate and considerate she was for Wendy, and the bond [they have]. You may simply really feel how a lot she cared about Wendy and it was actually a phenomenal second. I believed that was one of the lovely moments within the movie.”
White spoke to ET in April about her unplanned expertise being a part of the documentary.
“I simply went over to her home,” she mentioned to ET, expressing her shock on the presence of cameras through the candid dialog. Recalling the spontaneous nature of her go to, White emphasised the real connection she shares with Wendy.
White mentioned that, though she was within the documentary, she did not watch the entire thing, saying, “I’ve seen sure clips and issues like that.”
“I am the kind of particular person, if I see greater than what I have to see, I am gonna need to dig and resolve sure issues and I am identical to, ‘No matter for me is meant to be for me,’ you understand what I imply? And I used to be there for Wendy and I didn’t even know that they have been, like, filming a documentary,” White mentioned.
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