Heart of Invictus director & producer talk about Trojan horse Prince Harry
While Prince Harry has not given any interviews to promote Heart of Invictus (yet), Variety spoke to HoI’s director and producer in an exclusive interview. Director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara spoke to Variety about what drew them to the project, what Prince Harry was like as one subject out of many in the series, what he was like as a producer and how they got so many Invictus competitors to be so candid and open in the series. Some highlights:
Natasegara on using Harry’s story as a Trojan horse for the veterans’ stories: “For us, Prince Harry’s commitment to the Invictus community was very clear, and very obvious. He is in and of that community — and so you see that within the show. I don’t mind how people are attracted to the show, but I really hope they take away what we took away, which was a universal message of hope and resilience.
von Einsiedel on Taira, the Ukrainian woman: “When we started filing, it was a long time before there were even rumblings of the conflict — we started following Taira on this journey to become a civilian again, from her injury after almost a decade of being a volunteer paramedic. All of us watched with horror at the Russian invasion. That was not the kind of series we were trying to make. But Taira was documenting her work in a way that she might have done anyway, and sharing that material with us.
Natasegara on how they “cast”: We had a very mindful casting process — for want of a better phrase, as it really isn’t about casting. It was about meeting people who are open to the process of documentation, and we spent quite a long time talking to them about what that feels like. We all know as documentary makers that’s not an easy thing that you’re asking people to be in with you. So we wanted to make sure that people were really sure that they wanted to do that. People wanted to do that for all sorts of reasons. Very often, a common theme was the same as military service: Service to others, to share stories that might help someone else. We worked very closely with a production psychologist to ensure that people were filming in a way that was comfortable and appropriate for them.
Natasegara on how they treated Harry: We treated the Duke as we would any other contributor — the same process, the same duty of care, the same respect. And the same questions. It was really important to see him in the same way as the others, and I think he comes across in the same way, as an equal, to the others in the show. You have to be respectful and work slowly to gain people’s trust, and when they feel there’s a shared agenda, that trust is more easily won.
Natasegara on Harry-as-producer: Unsurprisingly, he’s very engaged with this project. He cares deeply about the community, cares deeply about how those people are presented. He cares deeply about mental health, and about sport as a tool for recovery. So he was a great partner. We really enjoyed making this series, top to bottom.
von Einsiedel on what surprised him: I’m going to give a really simple example. We were filming with Prince Harry in California, with JJ Chalmers and David Wiseman, who were two of the early Invictus competitors. JJ, who was injured in a bomb attack in Afghanistan, said, “Look, my injury has changed the way I look at the world. It’s made me a more understanding and empathetic person.” I probably had a very naive, ableist outlook on what an injury might do to you, so it really blew my mind hearing him say that. A lot of people working on this show learned an enormous amount about their own prejudices and blind spots.
Variety’s “Trojan horse” analogy is spot-on and that’s exactly what Orlando von Einsiedel has done with the veterans’ stories – he’s used Harry to explain and frame for the most part, while the bulk of the series is about the Invictus competitors and what they’re going through and how they’re training and why they’re doing what they do. It was fascinating to watch the team Harry put in place to operate Invictus on a daily basis, and how involved Harry was via Zoom during the pandemic too. Anyway, this is a great series and that’s why Salt Island is screaming, crying and throwing up about it.
Photos courtesy of Netflix.
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