The Williams sisters aren’t too happy with the finished product of a documentary they helped make for the last two years.
The tennis champions let a film crew follow them for two years to create Venus and Serena, but they were reportedly mad to see how the film depicted their father as a womanizer. The documentary on the Williams sisters, directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major, was released on iTunes on Thursday and will hit theaters May 10.
A large part of the documentary focuses on the health and injury issues faced by the Williams sisters. It shows the pulmonary embolism Serena suffered in 2011, giving viewers a glimpse of her surgery and later struggles with a recovery from a hematoma.
Viewers also see candid footage of Venus struggling with newly diagnosed Sjogren’s syndrome, which forces her to withdraw from the 2011 US Open.
Venus and Serena does not shy away from more controversial issues either. While it shows their dominance of the women’s circuit, it also touches on Serena’s infamous argument with a line judge at the 2009 US Open that led to opponent Kim Clijsters being awarded match point.
There is also a look into what motivates Venus and Serena Williams.
“I feel like I haven’t done anything in my career,” Venus said in an interview. “Maybe that sounds ridiculous, but I feel like I have to do more.”
But when the film showed her father Richard Williams as a womanizer, it lost the support of Venus. One scene in the documentary shows Serena having difficult naming all of Richard’s children. Later a man who may be the son of Richard Williams watches her practice, with Serena unaware that he’s there.
Serena seemed to defend the film for its frank depiction of their lives and struggles.
“I think it was just a great time to capture in my life,” she said in an interview this week. “I believe I wasn’t doing that great — I’d just fallen from grace, so to say. And you really see all the hard work that I was able to do and that I tried to do. Just from the beginning I won Stanford, and then I won Toronto, and then I get to the finals of the Open, and then you can kind of see a little bit of the history of me getting back to where I am now, and I think that was kind of cool.”
But officially the Williams sisters have dropped their support for Venus and Serena. They were supposed to promote the film at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, but backed out after Venus objected.
