3 months ago
Documentaries astir celebrities are a dime a twelve these days. But docus astir celebrities that don’t consciousness for illustration infomercials and alternatively are raw, informative, and honorable astir their prima subjects are fewer and acold between. HBO Sport’s two-part docuseries “Golden Boy,” astir Oscar De La Hoya, fits into nan jaw-droppingly candid, no-holds-bar category.
In nan first 3 minutes of nan doc, directed by Fernando Villena, nan Olympic boxing golden medalist and multi-world title-winning master boxer, who is now 50 years old, says, “Everyone thought they knew me. It was conscionable each a dishonesty because that’s what I do.”
In portion 1 of nan bid executive produced by Mark Wahlberg and Mario Lopez, De La Hoya reveals immoderate of his astir spectacular lies and achy puerility traumas. The 77-minute section besides features interviews pinch members of nan boxer’s contiguous family, who don’t clasp backmost astir really they consciousness astir nan 11-time titlist. (Let’s conscionable opportunity that not everyone agrees connected who should person won nan iconic 1996 conflict betwixt De La Hoya and Julio César Chávez.)
“It’s very therapeutic and truthful affectional proceeding my family members talk astir me,” says De La Hoya. “I needed that. I needed to conscionable perceive nan truth.”
De La Hoya, who participated successful Eva Longoria Bastón’s 2022 doc “La Guerra Civil,” has known since retiring successful 2008 that he wanted to make a documentary astir his life and career.
“When I retired from boxing, I felt lost,” he says. “I felt for illustration life wasn’t worthy surviving anymore because I could not person my passion, which was wrong nan ring. So, I wanted to show nan truth. I wanted to show my communicative successful my words, from my heart, astir what I’ve been done my full career. It’s been rather a rollercoaster.”
Villena, who made nan HBO docu for Wahlberg’s Unrealistic Ideas accumulation banner, spent an full twelvemonth interviewing De La Hoya.
“In doing nan research, I knew that location were a batch of moments successful Oscar’s life erstwhile he wasn’t truthful, whether to nan media aliases to his family,” says Villena. “So, I knew that getting to that honesty, that truth was going to beryllium difficult.”
The head decided that nan champion measurement to get De La Hoya to unfastened up was to question and reply him 1 connected one.
“I did each nan shooting and sound, and we conscionable talked,” Villena explains.
De La Hoya says opening up to nan helmer was nan “scariest” point he has ever done.
“I’ve faced nan toughest individuals wrong nan ringing passim my full life, but to beryllium honest, to virtually expose my feelings and my emotions was petrifying,” he says. “I tin spot really group successful my position aliases of my stature would awkward distant from doing thing for illustration this. But I had to because it was a measurement for maine to flight from nan reality that I’ve been surviving for nan past 45 years.”
Part 2 of nan docuseries, which was not provided to Variety, covers topics including nan boxer’s conflict pinch constituent maltreatment arsenic good arsenic nan infamous photograph of De La Hoya wearing women’s lingerie, which was leaked to nan property successful 2007.
“I told Mark (Wahlberg) and Mario Lopez to make this real,” nan boxer says. “Ask nan reliable questions, and pinch nan (lingerie) pictures that came retired galore years ago, I told them, I want you to hunt down that woman that leaked them and conscionable get nan truth.”
The first section of “The Golden Boy” will surface astatine nan Tribeca Festival connected June 9. Part 1 of nan docuseries will debut connected HBO connected July 24 followed by portion 2 connected July 25. Both episodes will beryllium disposable to watercourse connected Max opening July 24.
