Morgan Spurlock is the film director who’s spent his career thus far making documentaries with weighty themes and anti-capitalist political messages
On One Direction; 'They came from nowhere and now they're the biggest band in the world. What a story to tell. I wanted to capture them while they're riding that rocket,' said Morgan Spurlock
What on earth is Morgan Spurlock doing making a film about globally successful boy-band One Direction?
This is the film director who’s spent his career thus far making documentaries with weighty themes and anti-capitalist political messages.
He’s best known for the Oscar-nominated 2004 documentary Super Size Me, in which he ate only McDonald’s meals for 30 days, suffering liver dysfunction and depression and gaining 25lb as a result.
He travelled to Tora Bora to try to track down Al-Qaeda’s leader for Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?, and in The Greatest Movie Ever Sold skewered corporations for paying to place their products in Hollywood movies.
He’s not, then, the obvious choice to work with Simon Cowell, the boy band’s creator, on a 3D concert movie about One Direction called This Is Us in which, as Spurlock puts it, ‘you feel like you could reach out and touch Louis or Harry or Zayn’.
Cowell, though, has stated he thinks Spurlock is the ‘perfect person’ to make a film about the English-Irish band who came third on The X Factor in 2010 and have sold 30 million records worldwide, been number one in 37 countries, amassed MTV and Brit awards and are poised to go on a global tour of 75,000-seater stadiums next year.
They have legions of celebrity fans around the world, some of whom will come as a real surprise.
'We're tracing the journey of normal guys into an abnormal world and about how they remain grounded despite having 5,000 girls screaming outside their hotel and chasing their bus down the street,' said Morgan Spurlock
When the band play New York’s Madison Square Garden, for example, there’s a knock on their dressing room door before the gig and Martin Scorsese, the director of Taxi Driver and the Rolling Stones documentary film Shine A Light, appears with his daughter, who reveals that the delighted looking Oscar-winner has been listening to some of their music and enjoying it.
Says Spurlock about his selection: ‘They wanted someone who wasn’t from a promotional music video background, but who would bring a documentary sensibility to their stratospheric journey.
'It would have been easy to be cynical, but to approach their story that way would have made for a boring knee-jerk film.
'They came from nowhere and now they’re the biggest band in the world. What a story to tell. I wanted to capture them while they’re riding that rocket.’
Perhaps – but some of the most compelling band documentaries have borne witness not to triumph but to screaming rows and psychic meltdown.
‘I was more influenced by This Is It (the 2009 Michael Jackson concert film) says Spurlock.
‘I wanted to get a sense of intimacy with the band.’
He hopes his film bears comparison with The Beatles’ 1964 comedy film A Hard Day’s Night.
‘We’re tracing the journey of normal guys into an abnormal world and about how they remain grounded despite having 5,000 girls screaming outside their hotel and chasing their bus down the street.’
Is this movie some form of wish-fulfilment for the director? Spurlock laughs.
‘Sure – being incredibly unattractive and untalented, this was the closest I could get to being in a boy band and adored by screaming girls.’
Morgan Spurlock is best known for the Oscar-nominated 2004 documentary Super Size Me, in which he ate only McDonald's meals for 30 days, suffering liver dysfunction and depression and gaining 25lb as a result
Among his interviewees in the film is a doctor who explains what happens inside a girl’s body when she hears One Direction.
The neuroscientist says, ‘Their music triggers a release of dopamine, which provides feelings of joy, happiness, goosebumps . . . strong pleasures. The screaming girls are not crazy . . . just happy.’
But how can you critically analyse the boy-band phenomenon when one of the people chiefly responsible for its rise, namely Simon Cowell, is the film’s producer?
‘I’m not skewering sacred cows. My goal in making this film is to answer the question, “Why them?” They have talent, looks, brains or they wouldn’t be where they are.’
But did Cowell interfere in the making of the film? After all, One Direction is his baby.
‘Not at all. I flew to his house to show him a rough cut and he gave me some very astute notes. He notices little things that would pass others by – he’s a very successful man because he’s attentive to the details.’
At 42, Spurlock is old enough to be the father of any one of One Direction (Liam Payne is 19, Louis Tomlinson 21, Niall Horan 19, Harry Styles 19 and Zayn Malik 20).
But despite that age gap and despite the fact he came to the project without being a fan of their music, he feels a close connection with the boys and believes there are parallels between his life and theirs.
Brought up in West Virginia, Spurlock says he was enraptured by the entertainment business as a child and ascribes his success as a film-maker to being tenacious.
Morgan Spurlock hopes his film bears comparison with The Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night
‘Those are qualities you need in this business and Harry, Niall, Louis, Zayn and Liam have them in abundance.’
Like them, he overcame setbacks: he keeps every rejection letter he received from agents and movie producers.
‘I’m incredibly appreciative of where I’m from and how it shaped me, and I know those guys are too.’
In the film, he takes Harry back to a bakery in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire, to meet some of the women he worked with.
‘She used to pinch my bum when I worked here on a Saturday,’ says Harry of one lady in the film. ‘Yes I did,’ she recalls gleefully.
During a touching segment, in which the boys go back to their home towns in the middle of a tour break, we meet their parents, who lament the fact that their sons went off to The X Factor – and never came home again.
In a bittersweet talk to camera, Liam’s father regrets the fact that he can’t give his son any advice; he’s had a rural upbringing and has remained at home, while Liam has gone off and travelled the world.
And we see Zayn on the phone with his mum after he’s bought her a house. We see her picking up the keys for her new home, exploring the beautiful house, then phoning him in tears because he’s in Mexico.
She tells him how proud she is of him, of his work ethic and everything he’s achieved.
‘Get off the phone Mum,’ he replies, ‘before I start crying.’
Zayn says: ‘This is what it’s all been about for me. This is why I wanted to do it – so that I could give something back to my parents.’
‘These guys were from very humble backgrounds,’ says Spurlock.
‘Niall is from a family in Mullingar in Ireland who lived in a tiny house of two rooms. Each one of these guys realises how important their upbringing was for their lives. I find that very touching.’
This factor is, Spurlock feels, key to the film and something he wanted to focus on from the very beginning. ‘Their story is about two things – dreams and family.’
Are reports that some scenes were scripted true?
‘Not at all. There are so many untruths online and in the media about One Direction, you can’t correct them all.’
Returning to his Beatles theme, Spurlock suggests that One Direction are like the Liverpool four-piece at their peak in that everything they do is news – and everything they don’t do is news too.
‘It’s funny and touching and the classic story of triumphing over adversity.’
‘One Direction: This Is Us’ (in 3D) is in cinemas on August 29
