“I’ve worked with other sports people, and they’ve such weird lives.”
Katie Taylor has become one of the most well-known Irish sport stars in recent years, with the public getting to know a lot of information about her public and private life, without actually getting to know the person behind all the headlines.
New documentary Katie looks to remedy that, giving an insightful look at both Taylor The Boxer, as well as Taylor The Everyday Person. We here in JOE were big fans of the movie (read our full review here), and in the lead up to the movie’s release, we sat down with director Ross Whitaker.
Clip via Wildcard Distribution
Whitaker is no stranger to direct sports documentaries – Anthony Foley: Munsterman, Between Land And Sea, and When Ali Came To Ireland are all on his recent CV – but when we got to chatting about what it was exactly about Katie Taylor that set her apart from other athletes and sports legends, he knew exactly what the difference was:
“She just fronts up! If she says she is going to meet you at a certain time, at a certain place, she will be there! She will be there five minutes early! That’s how she lives!
“I’ve worked with other sports people, and they’ve such weird lives. Between moments of incredible solitude to heavy training, you know? You can get a lot of demons from being an athlete, and sometimes that can pour over into real life, and sometimes when you’re filming with athletes it can be very hard to get them to do things. Or they’ll say they’ll do one thing, but when it comes down to it, they don’t want to do it.
“I understand all of that, but Katie doesn’t operate that way. If she says she is going to do something, she will live it out that way. So from my point of view, that was a God send.”
Listen to our interview in full with the director right here:
Katie is in Irish cinemas right now.
This interview was edited for clarity.
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