Bill Simmons on Mr. McMahon Docuseries Being “Strangest Documentary Process I’ve Worked On”

A recent episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast featured The Ringer’s David Shoemaker as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Simmons and Shoemaker’s thoughts about the production of Netflix’s Mr. McMahon docuseries, which Simmons was the series executive producer.

Bill Simmons – “It was certainly the strangest documentary process I’ve ever been involved with.”

David Shoemaker – “I don’t think Vince – it sounds so weird to say – I’m not sure Vince knew what it meant to do the documentary and I’m not sure that he knew what story he wanted to tell. I don’t even know if he knows who he is enough to tell that story. Even when he was eager, he wasn’t there on time or on the days that he was supposed to be there.”

Simmons – “He always had people with him. There was always people, kind of, lingering in the background making sure nothing weird happened.”

Shoemaker – “Yeah, and reminding him of things in his past. There was always a team.”

Shoemaker also gave his thoughts about their issues with the lengthy days of filming due to McMahon’s late work schedule.

“Chris Smith, the entire production team have done so many documentaries of this sort, and of all sorts. They’ve been working in this world forever. This is the guy that did The Tiger King, and none of them had ever experienced a working situation like we encountered in Stanford, Connecticut.

We would show up to shoot and then just all day long be getting updates from Vince’s secretary about his ETA. Six hours, eight hours before the shoot, pushing it back an hour, pushing it back another hour.

Then he would roll in at 11 p.m., pitch black, with his little crew around him and shake everybody’s hand.

It was just such a bizarre situation.”

Shoemaker also gave his thoughts about how the docuseries could have been ten episodes in length due to all of the footage they had shot and not used for it.

“We had four hours of Vince’s interview on the cutting room floor because he sounded like a frog one day. He didn’t have a voice. There was so much good material but I think the story that Chris and his team were able to tell was pretty amazing.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com