The Real Problem With Netflix's Hulk Hogan Movie
Let's deal with the issue of biopics being sponsored by their real-life stars first. And with Bohemian Rhapsody as a pertinent recent example that caught a lot of heat for the way it presented its subject. That mostly came down to the fact that the remaining members of the band acted as producers and had script approval. If they didn't, we would have got an entirely different movie, with Sacha Baron Cohen as Freddie Mercury and a little more focus on some of the more colourful stories from Queen's rise to fame.
After he left the role, Cohen effectively shot on the band, saying Brian May was a great musician but not a great movie producer. The band - May and Roger Taylor predominantly - have since said that Cohen wasn't the right man for the job because he was distracting and didn't take the story seriously, but the actor had something different to say. He revealed what he wanted to say and why the band wouldn't allow it:
“There are amazing stories about Freddie Mercury. The guy was wild. There are stories of little people with plates of cocaine on their heads walking around a party. They wanted to protect their legacy as a band.”
He also revealed what their approach to the story would have been had their initial plans worked out:
"A member of the band—I won’t say who—said, “You know, this is such a great movie because it’s got such an amazing thing that happens in the middle of the movie.” And I go, “What happens in the middle of the movie?” He goes, “You know, Freddie dies.” … I go, “What happens in the second half of the movie?” He goes, “We see how the band carries on from strength to strength.” I said, “Listen, not one person is going to a movie where the lead character dies from AIDS and then you carry on to see how the band carries on.”
Thankfully, Cohen's call there seems to have stuck with the band as they didn't follow through with the plan to kill Mercury halfway through, but they definitely still had a major say in the way they were portrayed, presumably in the interest of preserving their legacy.
The band were, rather famously, some of the most notorious hellraisers in rock history. If you choose to accept that they sat in the background of Freddie's debauchery drinking tea and tutting affectionately, you probably don't know the truth of the band. Who's to say anyone does, though - the point is that they controlled their story.
The only people who cannot tell their own story in films like this are those who have died. Freddie Mercury had no input to his own biopic, which is why he comes across as a far more complex, rounded character than the stand-ins who LOOK right but don't really have characters per se.
That's a problem with all biopics about people who are still alive, particularly if they have a vested interest in protecting their legacy. There's no way Dexter Fletcher's upcoming Rocketman can be anything like as revelatory as Steven Soderbergh's Behind The Candelabra was because Elton John is still around to question the approach. History is written by the victors and fame is written by those still living it.