As the world was shocked into mass protests over the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti, another in a month in Minneapolis, the White House hosted people for the screening of Melania Trump's documentary. These VIP's included- Apple CEO Tim Cook, Queen Rania of Jordan, and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The exclusive screening was extravagant with custom-made popcorn buckets and personalised gift boxes emblazoned with the first lady’s portrait. The documentary, which has been in the making for a year now, will be released on January 30. The rights of the film lie with Amazon MGM Studios, which offered an eye-watering 40 million dollars, the most the streamer had ever paid for any piece of content
As per The Wall Street Journal, Melania has kept roughly 70 % of the licensing fee, $28 million, herself.
As the world waits to see more of Melania, who remained largely elusive throughout both Trump’s first and second terms, the behind-the-scenes accounts paint a troubling picture. A few crew members, talking to Rolling Stone, have revealed that the whole process was 'really long hours, highly disorganised, very chaotic'.
One person said, "It was very difficult because of the chaos that was around everything. … Usually [for a documentary] it’s like, ‘Oh, follow the subject.’ Well, it’s Melania Trump. With the first lady and Secret Service, you can’t just do things you usually do.”
As the documentary captures Melania in the weeks leading up to the inauguration, the production was really disorganised. For example, there was a travel coordinator for times when the team had to board the Trump Organisation’s Boeing 757 to film the first lady on a flight en route to Mar-a-Lago.
Rolling Stone also revealed that about two-thirds of the people who worked on the documentary had asked not to be credited formally in the documentary. A person credited in the film said, "I’m much more alarmed now than I was a year ago."
The 'worst part of working on the project'
People said that Melania Trump was friendly and very engaged in the process, but Brett, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. "She was totally nice,” one person said. “She was the opposite of Brett Ratner.”
Interestingly, the Melania documentary marks Brett Ratner’s first film since six women publicly accused the Rush Hour and X-Men: The Last Stand director of sexual harassment and assault in 2017.
Ratner has denied the allegations and was never charged. More recently, his name resurfaced after a photograph showing a shirtless Ratner with model scout and Epstein associate Jean-Luc Brunel appeared in newly unclassified Epstein files. On the day the Los Angeles Times published its investigation into Ratner, Epstein emailed his personal lawyer, writing, “brett ratner now. Oy.” Through an intermediary, Ratner told that he never met Epstein.
Several members of the production team raised concerns about the project, describing unease over its intent and the presence of director Brett Ratner.
“I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this,” one member of the production team said. “But Brett Ratner was the worst part of working on this project.” The person said they were unaware of Ratner’s involvement until just days before filming began and would not have accepted the job had they known earlier.
Another person involved in the production echoed that sentiment, saying, “There was more talk about Brett being slimy than there was about Melania.”
Multiple crew members described Ratner’s behaviour on set as disruptive. One recalled that he left “a trail of detritus — discarded orange peels, gum wrappers — wherever he went.” “He did actually chew a piece of gum and throw it in a coffee cup on my cart,” the person said, adding that Ratner “didn’t acknowledge my existence for even one nanosecond.”
Another crew member described a particularly long shoot during which the team was not allowed to break for meals, and outside food was prohibited in the filming area. “Everyone was starving,” the person said. They recalled Ratner bringing his own food and eating it in front of the crew. “Brett, unknowingly or maliciously, got his own food, went up there, was just eating it and just licking his fingers in grubbiest way possible, either being a dick or [having] no awareness whatsoever to the fact that everybody else is working and no one’s eating,” the person said.
Not everyone involved shared that view. A third individual defended Ratner and praised his work on the project. “He’s an intuitive, incredible, emotional, intelligent director, and you will see that on the screen,” the person said. “It’s not just a documentary, it’s a film — he’s a filmmaker that can go long shots, big shots. He sees everything from a different point of view [than a documentarian].”
What to expect from the documentary
It remains unclear how Ratner initially connected with Donald Trump, but the director has since become close to both the president and first lady. He is reportedly living in a villa at Mar-a-Lago and is said to have continued filming Melania Trump even after post-production on the documentary had concluded.
Despite what people involved described as extraordinary access to the first lady, and the significant sums of money spent on the film, those who worked on the project cautioned against expecting major revelations. Melania Trump, they said, has largely remained a cipher despite decades in the public eye. “Some people are boring,” one crew member said. “Some people also never let their guard down.”
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