Director Fernando Villena on Finding Where the Truth Lives in HBO’s Oscar Del Hoya Documentary, ‘The Golden Boy’

Director Fernando Villena had the challenging task of encompassing the life and career of one of boxing’s most complex figures: Oscar De La Hoya. Over the course of his career inside and outside of the ring, Oscar was a figure who transcended his sport by becoming a ubiquitous pitchman for commercials, and later an incredibly successful boxing promoter.

But behind that glowing smile lived a great deal of darkness. Issues with alcohol, confidence, tabloid controversies, and self-destructive behavior. For the first time in HBO’s two-part documentary The Golden Boy, Oscar De La Hoya bares his soul in a way you seldom see from a public figure.

In our conversation, Fernando and I discuss the genesis of the project and the bold nature of the result. The Golden Boy is not your typical sports documentary. The catharsis achieved is through pain and honesty, not glory and triumph. It’s one of the finest films of its kind in recent memory.

Awards Daily: The first thing that I thought about while watching this was the recent HBO documentary on Andre Ward, SOG, which is well done, very professional, but I never felt like it got underneath its subject. The Golden Boy is the polar opposite of that film. Were you surprised at how forthcoming Oscar was?

Fernando Villena: Yes and no. The no part of that answer is because that’s what we talked about from the very beginning. In our very first meeting I asked him why he wanted to make this film. And he said he needed to get stuff out. He’s reached a point in his life where he needed to unburden himself from a lot of these secrets that he’s been holding. So he told me he didn’t want to sugarcoat anything and nothing was off limits. As a filmmaker, when you hear that, that’s super exciting because it’s uncommon for a protagonist to tell you that. The surprising part of it is that he fulfilled his promise. The interviews lasted for over a year. We did over thirty interviews and they were always one-on-one. It was grueling at times. It was stressful at times. Sometimes it was funny, depending on what we were talking about. Some of it, I could tell, were difficult subjects for him to talk about, but he never wavered. He always dove in, and he let me dig. And he let me keep digging and he let me keep digging. You always want to get past the second, third, fourth “why”, that’s where the truth lives. That’s where the truth hides and he was down for it. And he never wavered. So I was pleasantly surprised, because a lot of us start things that we don’t finish. But he finished it.

Awards Daily: A lot of people, when they think about Oscar, they think about the smile, and the skills, and the flash that he had. But there is a decidedly somber tone through most of the film. I think this is probably coming from where Oscar’s at. He didn’t want to talk about the highs so much. He really kind of wanted to get into the lows. When you watched it back, did you think to yourself this is pretty dark? 

Fernando Villena: We premiered the film at Tribeca last month. It was the first time with an audience, we never even did a test screening. I can tell you I was super nervous. Partly because of the darkness of the subject matter. Parts of it are heavy and some of it is hard to watch, but the audience really leaned in and they found a lot of humor and a lot of levity in the film. The difference between a tragedy and a comedy, I once heard, is that a tragedy has a few less laughs in it. It was like peeling back the layers of the onion to get to this core truth and who Oscar really is. As we kept peeling back the onion, we knew there wasn’t going to be a heroic ending there. He wasn’t going to spike the football at the end of the film. It was going to be way more introspective, way more quiet, way more unexpected. The film leaves you with a sense that he’s a work in progress and if he could do things differently, he would, but of course he can’t. And he is embracing the opportunity to do things differently in the future and in the present, not just with his kids, but with his family and his new relationship. He wants to be a better person. But it’s going to be an ongoing process for him, as it is for all of us.

Awards Daily: When you see how his home life was, his dad was very tough on him. His mom was physically abusive. Then in his own life as an adult, he had trouble sustaining relationships; not only with the women he was with, but also with the children he created with those women. You could really feel the hurt while watching it. There’s no such thing as a time machine, right? To expose that was brave. And also uncomfortable as an audience member because he didn’t hold back, as you say.

Fernando Villena: Super brave. That’s one of the things I hope people take away from the film when they watch it. No matter what you think about Oscar, because you do learn a lot of things about him that aren’t flattering, but however you feel about him, whatever your personal thoughts and emotions are, when you watch the film I hope people can take away the fact that it is an act of courage that he did this and that he allowed himself to be exposed. Everybody we interviewed knew that Oscar gave them their blessing to speak their truth however they saw it. He didn’t coach them on anything. He told them to say what’s on your mind. As you see, from his dad, his brother, his sister to his kids, they don’t hold back, right? Nobody holds back in this film. And I think that’s a tremendously brave and courageous thing. There’s power in the truth and he really leaned into that.

Awards Daily: I’m looking at this middle-aged man and there were times he almost seemed like a little boy. I think in particular when talking about his mother, because it struck me that even with her having passed away, that he was still on some level looking for her approval, which is something you can never get when somebody is gone. Did you get that sense that he was still trying to please somebody who’s no longer alive?

Fernando Villena: Of course, of course. That’s the through line of his life. That’s where his demons come from. That’s where his inspiration and aspirations come from. They all are rooted in this relationship with his mom that he couldn’t fulfill in life. If you see the film and you see the end of the first episode, you’ll realize how he was able to form a relationship with his mom after she passed. And that’s one of the great revelations in the film. We’re all complex. We’re all broken in a way. We all have our flaws. By embracing that about him and embracing that process to put all this stuff out there, it was a transformational experience from what he’s told me and what I’ve heard him say to other people. That’s not why we made the film, but I think that’s great. I’m rooting for Oscar. I spent a lot of time with him. It’s wonderful that he has this opportunity now to kind of move past it in a way and embrace this new reality that he has where all of his secrets are exposed and he’s come clean.

Awards Daily: What is fascinating about it is that here’s a person who has experienced an extraordinary level of success as an athlete and as a businessman, but he doesn’t strike you as someone who feels like they’re successful.

Fernando Villena: I think definitely in his boxing career, eleven time champion, all those different weight classes, and then if you watch the film you’ll see that he knows in his heart that he could have been even better than he was. And he was pretty great. He was the face of boxing for a generation. He accomplished great things in the ring and outside the ring as far as in the whole boxing arena. But he wasn’t satisfied. I think that that’s not just in his business and in his career. I think that’s just part of who he is. He needs that affirmation. And he was searching for love, and he was searching for that missing thing that maybe has to do with his mom, maybe has to do with other things. But yeah, he was always searching and I think the ring for him was his safe place. That’s where he could run from all the stuff that was eating him internally and externally. He could go to the ring and he could beat up on some hapless opponent. I’m not a boxing expert by any means, but after being in this world for a couple years, what I appreciate about his boxing abilities and how he approached his career was that as his career went on, he fought the very best in their prime. That’s not something that a lot of boxers do. And he did it. That courage that he showed during his career, especially the latter part of his career is that same courage that he tapped into while making this project.

Awards Daily: I’m sure because of Oscar’s long relationship with HBO and this being an HBO project, the footage you had access to was extraordinary. What it did for me was remind me of how incredibly talented he was. Throughout his career, certainly, but in those early years, the speed and athleticism. Did you take some pleasure in reminding people of his gifts?

Fernando Villena: Yeah, totally. And the swagger, the style. You can knock somebody out, but I always loved that swagger he had after he’d knock somebody out and just kind of bounce around the ring. His strength and his left hook and all that business, I think it’s remarkable. One thing we did with that footage is we never wanted to show a fight just to show a fight. He wanted to make parallels with what was happening inside the ring with his life outside the ring as much as we could, or to use these fights as kind of story beats that took us to another place. The fights and the fight footage were approached differently in that sense. By doing that, we could really deconstruct the fight footage and show the best moments of the fight and of how good he was, but not have it feel thin because we’re telling a bigger story with each fight. Whether it’s his relationship with Shanna (Moakler), or whether it’s him standing up to his brother. What was really fun was finding those parallels and finding how chronologically it all worked out.

Awards Daily: What was incredibly notable to me is that you could reasonably argue that his greatest victory was over the great Mexican warrior, Julio Cesar Chavez. Sometimes when a guy gets over a hump like that, they find more acceptance. Oscar seemed to find less, particularly among Mexicans in Mexico and also Mexican Americans. He beat Chavez twice and beat him badly twice. It struck me that Oscar didn’t even get to enjoy the most extraordinary thing he ever did in the ring.

Fernando Villena: In the ring, right. And, he suffered for that. Internally it tore him up. It ate at him. The fact that he didn’t get that affirmation and he didn’t get that love from the people he most wanted it from, which was his community. We could talk about masculinity and machismo and all that stuff because it’s all identity, right? It’s all wrapped up in this. But Oscar doesn’t look like Chavez and he didn’t behave like Chavez, and Oscar fully accepted and immersed himself in American culture and became a crossover star, one of the biggest of his era. That made him a polarizing figure. All of Mexico’s rooting for Chavez, and a good part of East Los Angeles too and I think how does that not bother him? How does that not affect him? Especially somebody who wants acceptance and who wants love and who wants affirmation and seeks it. That was a difficult period in his life. And I still don’t think, like you said, that people haven’t fully accepted or given him the respect for that accomplishment even to this day. Chavez holds a very special place in the heart of Mexican boxing fans.

Awards Daily: Even his father says in the documentary, if Chavez had been younger, I don’t think Oscar would’ve won. Oscar’s own father says this. Even at this moment you’re like, oh gosh, just let him have it.

Fernando Villena: That was one of the most shocking things anybody said on camera to me and there were a lot of things that people said on camera that were eye opening. But that, I felt, was tough and spoke to a lot of the pain that Oscar feels and felt. It’s this not being good enough. And then he self-sabotaged himself along the way. It was crazy to hear that but that’s what his dad felt and that’s what we showed. Everybody knew that this was an opportunity for them to say whatever it was that was on their minds and in their hearts. I respect and I appreciate Oscar’s father for sharing that with us, because that’s brutally honest. That’s about as brutally honest as you can get.

Awards Daily: And then talking about self-sabotage, the photos with him wearing lingerie. People screw around and do stuff and they don’t think it’s going to come out. Back then I think we could get away with that more. In this modern age, there’s cameras everywhere, you’re more guarded about these kinds of things. And then on top of that there were multiple rape allegations—none that were proven, I want to make sure that’s clear. And then his struggles with alcohol. I lived in a house with an alcoholic for nine years. As you’re watching Oscar talk about this, you just wonder how much do you remember what you did and what decisions you made and what you did or didn’t do? Did it strike you that maybe he doesn’t even know exactly everything that happened in his life because of that?

Fernando Villena: It’s hard for me to say. I can’t speak for Oscar in that respect, but I think he knows that he was reckless and he knows that if he could go back and do things differently, he would. That’s something that he talks about in the film. All those subjects that you brought up, we knew we were going to talk about and we knew we were going to give Oscar an opportunity to talk about his experiences. There were some difficult things, but I think he was honest and forthright in all of those sessions.

Awards Daily: Do you think he’s able to take more pleasure in his success as a business person than he was able to as a boxer?

Fernando Villena: That’s a good question. I think he’s proud of the fact that he was able to successfully transition from boxer to promoter to businessman and keep his wealth and give his family generational wealth and provide for his family in that way. We all know these stories of athletes who squander all their riches and all of their success and glory and he had a lot of opportunities to do that. He wasn’t born a businessman. He learned it along the way. There were hard lessons but they were lessons he wanted to learn and he wanted to be a success story. From what I can tell, he really wants to be good at everything that he does, but he has a lot of demons that he fights with. Deep inside at the core is a person who wants to make people proud of him. At this point, after this film, I think there’s an opportunity for him to step into this new path or this new space that he’s created for himself and build new relationships with those around him and really embrace this next chapter of his life. He seems very excited to me and he seems like he’s in great spirits and I’ve been really enjoying and really happy seeing him embrace this whole process.

Awards Daily: As to your point, we see athletes who squander their money, even though they make tens or even sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars, and they lose it all. For boxers, I think it’s even harder because promoters are dicey in that sport. Then there’s just the sheer toll on you physically and sometimes mentally. Oscar seems remarkably intact in that regard to be so able to self-evaluate at this age in his life.

Fernando Villena: I think he retired at the right time. There’s a lot of examples of boxers who don’t, who stick around too long. A lot of it is money related. But he had the foresight to figure out another source of income for after he stopped fighting. But at the root of the promoter thing, he really wanted to help boxers. He really wanted to give them an opportunity to fight and to build their careers in a way that he didn’t necessarily have. He knows what it’s like to be in the ring. He knows what it’s like to get punched in the face. That’s something that other promoters can’t offer their fighters. He could, and he embraced that. The boxing business is murky. The relationships don’t always end well. I think the heart of Golden Boy promotions and his intentions for starting that company were for him to give fighters a platform, but also to keep providing for himself and his family.

Awards Daily: The film struck me as a man searching for peace. You said you’ve talked to him, you’ve seen him, and he’s been in good spirits of late. Do you think he found a measure of peace through the film?

Fernando Villena: I don’t know about peace. But I know he saw the film a couple times, I wasn’t there. I wasn’t in the room, thank God. That would’ve been crazy. When I saw him after, he told me that it was a really cathartic experience for him. Not just for him to say the things that he said, but also to hear his kids speak openly and his family members and for them to speak openly about their experiences with him, that was also healing for him. So I would probably say more healing than anything. And that’s wonderful if that’s the case. I think there’s truth in that. I’m happy about that. I think that’s wonderful. Again, that wasn’t the intention to heal Oscar when we made this movie, but if that’s one of the byproducts of it, then that’s great. I think getting all that stuff off of his chest and putting it out to the world, and again however you feel about Oscar, after watching the film I hope you can take away the fact that it was a courageous act to do what he did.

Part one of The Golden Boy debuts on July 24, with part two following on July 25