It didn’t take long for Netflix to deliver what could be the definitive documentary on the rise and fall of Russell Brand, the former comedian sentenced this week to ten and a half years in prison after being convicted of rape and sexual assault.
“Russell Brand: Open Secret,” which includes testimonials from former partners and fellow comedians, traces not only Brand’s career, but also the media climate that allowed him to flourish despite effectively hiding in plain sight.
Hours after the documentary debuted on Netflix, director Olivia Isaacs (“The Other Mrs Jordan: Catching the Ultimate Swindler”) spoke with Variety to discuss the process of making the film as her trial approaches, whether it was easy to find contributors and whether she’s worried about backlash.
When did you start working on this?
November 2023, two months after the allegations broke out.
This was a pre-police investigation. It was the very beginning, so all our attention was on this man, this huge celebrity, and now these allegations. Is there broader, broader work to be done? He’s a big figure of the 2000s. We wanted to examine the cultural context. We weren’t sure what was going to happen to him, so it was quite an interesting moment.
Once indicted, British media are no longer allowed to publish or broadcast anything that could harm the trial. How did this impact your process?
Either way, we were never going to rush the process. So we were still in the early stages of production at that point, and at the time they announced an investigation, we thought, “We don’t want to impact future trials.” We were fully aware that there could be charges at any time, and that after the charges, we didn’t know the timelines, but there would be a trial. So I think we’ve always tried to be responsible filmmakers and mitigate that.
The documentary examines the course of Brand’s career but does not delve into the recent criminal case. Have you considered adding more cases?
There was a discussion: do we follow it? But I think we felt like we had a bigger message and a broader understanding to spread…. and I think we wanted to add our voice to this moment rather than waiting.
Netflix released the document just over a week after Brand’s conviction. What would have happened if he had been acquitted of all charges against him? Was there a different cut ready to go?
I think we’re very aware that legally, if someone is found innocent, you’re in a different legal scenario…which makes it more difficult to publish. If he had been released, perhaps we imagined we would have to do a reversion down the line. But then we thought: what is our story? You know, what do we add to that culturally at this point? We never knew what was going to happen, but we made the film with the mentality of, “This would probably result in some sort of guilty verdict,” but a lot of it depended on what that might look like and then our duty of care to the people in the film.
How ready was he when the verdict came?
He was more or less 99.9% ready. And then we had the end cards, we wanted to put in the sentence and everything else. There were a few things we had to legally check.
Was it easy to find contributors?
As we all know, there is a climate of fear. This has been a contentious minefield for many years, reporting anything on Brand. So even though some people showed up, everyone was still in that mindset. It really wasn’t easy. “Easy” would never be the word I would use for this. It took a lot of trust and conversations, and even then, a lot of people didn’t feel comfortable. There was a lot of nervousness and fear, and they had either stayed quiet until now, or signed NDAs, or you know, there were a lot of complexities there. So it was a slow process to talk to as many people as possible.
Was there anyone in particular you were hoping to talk to that you couldn’t get to?
We were open-minded and guided by access and a willingness to talk. I mean, of course, for me as a filmmaker, I would always like to hold people accountable and hear what people think on that side and unfortunately, those people didn’t want to sit in front of the camera and take responsibility. I would say there are a lot of people on that side that we would have liked to (talk to) or wish that they would take this moment to kind of acknowledge that and, like I said, take responsibility. I think that’s probably the voice that’s missing the most right now, not to mention the film.
You mean the people around him who enabled him and protected him?
Exactly. You know, agents, executive producers, people who deal with talent. People entrust him with the work.
One thing the documentary shows very clearly is how Brand would transform into the most opportune character, especially as he moved into political influence, first on the left and then on the right. How did you approach this?
He had all these different personalities and appearances and so that’s always my first thought, aside from the allegations, (it was) fascinating to me.
And then, of course, because we made it over three years, you were able to sort of trace this backlash against the Me Too movement that we were intensely living in and still living in, and the development of the “manosphere” and this far-right conspiracy space, and Russell coming into that space. So for me, I was fascinated by the fact that his story takes us into today’s history and the “division” (current politics), and it wasn’t necessarily a sensitive space to exist in, but just interesting, I guess.
I’ve heard that Netflix is good at providing support to documentary makers covering topics with very passionate fans. Did they support you given that Brand’s fan base (some of whom showed up in court to support him) can be very vocal?
I think there’s always been a sense of duty of care to everyone off camera as well, and to support everyone through that. I think the industry has improved in this area as well. We had some trauma-informed training early on, both for us and for the contributors that we knew we were going to be speaking with, as well as other training just around dealing with what we might be listening to and watching for such a long period of time, so I felt like there was a lot of support in general, not necessarily, you know, acutely for backlash and such.
But Netflix is great in its ability to provide online safety advice and support. They have teams that check your online profile and make sure you don’t accidentally reveal your address somewhere and things like that. So I felt like there was a nice support network around me and the whole team. But I don’t think we made any alarmist remarks to worry too much about the fans. There will always be people online. This is already dividing everyone’s opinion on social media.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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