Following the release of Where Is Wendy Williams? the documentary’s producers reveal they apparently didn’t know about the former talk show host’s dementia diagnosis.
Mark Ford, one of the producers, revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that had the documentary’s crew knew about the diagnosis, they wouldn’t have rolled any of the cameras.
“We tried to be as transparent as possible,” Ford explained. “And the making of the film is as much a story in some ways as Wendy’s story itself. And that’s why we intentionally left a lot of the questions in.”
Ford and his team wanted people to understand their journey. This included how upsetting it was for all of them in certain instances. It was also to show how outrageous in some ways the situations were.
However, Ford admitted there was no one with Wendy Williams 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “So, these are just all the questions we had throughout. But, of course, if we had known that Wendy had dementia going into it, no one would’ve rolled a camera.”
When asked how the documentary came to be, Ford stated it began as a conversation between the head of development, Pat Lambert, and Williams’ manager, Will Selby. “It was supposed to be a documentary that would follow her journey back into her career doing a podcast,” Ford pointed out.
“We thought it was a great idea, and we were hopeful that Wendy’s story would be redeeming and we’d be able to document this journey.”
Ford then said that as the filming progressed, it became evident it wasn’t really going to be a comeback story. “This was going to be a deeper story, and that there was something ultimately disturbing going on in Wendy’s life.”
Documentary Producer Questioned If Wendy Williams Was Ready for Filming
Meanwhile, Ford admitted that he had questioned if Wendy Williams was genuinely ready to film the documentary.
“I mean, you can hear my voice in the first 10 minutes of the film asking every question that you would ask about this situation,” he said. “The beginning of the film was really the development shoot, where we went out and just wanted to sit with Wendy and see how she was doing.”
Ford also said that Wendy Williams had been in a better state. “She was sober and on a better trajectory. And there were conversations and plans for the podcast, he continued. “And there were people being put in place to produce that podcast.”
Things eventually derailed because of what Ford and his team now know. Ford further admitted it was tough to film every single day. “There was no guarantee we would air this documentary if we weren’t happy with the content,” he added.