Over the 10 years since the hoax, Te’o had been able to process and work through his emotions, and he was now in a better position to share that journey with his fans. The timing of the documentary, Vainuku said, allowed for the complete story to be told. “For you to go through what you went through, deep down inside you’re questioning yourself,’” Te’o recalled his therapist saying in the documentary. He had been quick to forgive his perpetrator.Īnd then his therapist asked him a follow-up question: Had he forgiven himself? But eventually, he ended up going to therapy, where he finally had his major breakthrough.ĭuring one session, Te’o’s therapist asked if he had forgiven Tuiasosopo. He listened to motivational talks, watched old footage of his Notre Dame football days and tried to remember who he was before it all. It would be like that for three seasons with the Chargers.Įvery day Te’o tried to get rid of the anxiety. During his first preseason game with the San Diego Chargers, Te’o said his entire body felt numb. In “Untold,” Te’o reveals how his transition to the NFL in the aftermath of the catfishing scandal was riddled with anxiety, the Deseret News previously reported. And fortunately, he gave me and the team an opportunity to do that with him.” “He’s so genuine with how much he loves his fans, that it was important for him to not only tell his story for himself, but to answer all the questions that everybody had,” Vainuku said. Vainuku said he was “taken aback” by Te’o’s interview - his vulnerability and willingness to share his story and inspire others. “My jaw dropped the whole time,” the director said. Once all of the parts were in place, Vainuku spent a few days interviewing Te’o, letting him tell his own story in his own words. Although Te’o hadn’t communicated with Tuiasosopo in the years since the catfishing hoax, he was adamant that she be included in the project, Vainuku said. It was going to be on his terms.”įor Te’o, that included making sure all sides of the story were featured in the documentary. I was just open to whatever he was going to tell us, whatever he needed to share, and helping him feel safe doing that. “I went into the project with no judgment. “We weren’t going to push anything that he wasn’t ready for,” said Vainuku, who grew up in Salt Lake City and graduated from Westminster College. Vainuku said he worked on establishing trust with Te’o, making it clear that he wasn’t going to “exploit” the football player. ‘In Football We Trust’ explores Polynesians’ obsession with gridiron.Here’s a look back at how “Untold” came together. 26 - was inducted into the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame and welcomed a second child into his family. It’s now been five months since “Untold” premiered. “I immediately know that Manti is ready to tell the story,” he told the Deseret News last year, shortly before the documentary hit Netflix last August. Although he had never met Te’o until that moment, Vainuku knew this was the right time for the documentary. He hopped onto a Zoom call with the former Heisman Trophy candidate and star linebacker for Notre Dame. Thanks to the filmmaker’s work on “ In Football We Trust,” which explores a Polynesian community in Salt Lake City and the pressures on that community to play football at the professional level, Vainuku was able to get access to Te’o. Specifically, he wanted to know how Te’o was doing and why he hadn’t told his story. Before agreeing to direct “ Untold: The Girlfriend Who Didn’t Exist,” a Netflix documentary that revisits the Manti Te’o catfishing saga, Tony Vainuku wanted to talk to Te’o.
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