When Alex Gibney, Matt Tolmach and Frank Marshall set out to make a film about legendary cyclist Lance Armstrong, they were creating a positive film highlighting the achievements of the seven-time Tour de France winner called The Road Back. After the film had been completed, Armstrong came forward finally admitting to the doping allegations that had piled up against the champion — and finally proved that he had been cheating the whole time. Their documentary transformed into The Armstrong Lie.
At the film’s premiere on October 25th, the trio discussed how they felt duped by the man who they had come to know personally as they documented his life and career. But, since they had such a bond with Armstrong, they were able to tap into that relationship and get an in-depth look at the cyclist and the tangled web he had woven for himself.
“When you discover that something is not what it was represented as, there’s a sense of betrayal,” producer Tolmach said. “As filmmakers though, to be honest with you, we saw it as a fascinating opportunity and another layer to the story that was unraveling literally before us.”
After confessing to the cheating rumors to Oprah, Armstrong sat through interviews with Gibney that revealed the real man to the filmmaker without filters or coverups; the content of these interviews would provide the basis for the new documentary. It was a whole new side to the project — once a story about a remarkable athlete, now a tale about losing it all to get to the top.
“What attracted me about him was will — both the admirable side of it, the sense of this guy who comes back from near death to win the hardest sporting event in the world seven times, and then sort of the darker side of that, which is the guy who’ll do anything to win,” Gibney said.
The Armstrong Lie is in theaters November 8th.
Source: Variety
Photo Credit: The Hollywood Reporter
