Marcelo Ríos was excited about the documentary produced by Alto Andes Films for Amazon Prime. “I have wanted to do a biography or something of my life for a long time, but not from number one forward, but backwards … Thousands of things that people do not know. Everyone thinks that I come from a millionaire family and that tennis was easy because my parents paid for everything, and it is not true ”, he reveals.
What happened?
Jaime Villarreal contacts me and offers me this project. I did some commercials with him, but I didn’t know him very well. When he told me Amazon Prime, I found it to be important, because no Chilean is there, except for Jadue. It was doing something that left a legacy for my kids to see. A contract was made, dates were set, but there were a lot of problems. I came to the conclusion that everyone has a way of getting paid. Alto Andes has no idea about tennis. It was not up to par and I think they were not prepared to make a documentary for Amazon Prime. I had to call the players and get things for myself. Strange things started to happen.
As which?
For example, they called Nicolás and offered him money to get Thiem. I don’t know if it’s true, but Nicolás told me. It is already serious. I also had a hard time with my ex-agent (Jeff Schwartz), who is one of the best in the world. They call him and these guys say “let’s talk to Jeff so we can go on his yacht.” I call him to meet us and tell him to take the yacht. And he says “what yacht?”
What other things happened?
The contract was changed every day. There were clauses that I had seen in my life. I couldn’t go against anyone, but people could speak whatever they wanted. The grace was that people spoke good and bad. I wanted people to talk bad people to do it like Jordan, who responded when they showed him that they did shit.
When does the break occur?
They started interviewing people. Michael Chang and I think Nishikori too. Filming started on a Friday. On Thursday afternoon the signed contract was not there. And I had to receive a payment before starting and another before finishing. I wasn’t going to make a profit with anything, they could sell it and earn money. Then they wanted to pay me in four payments. I told them there were two of them. Being paid is another motivation, because one knows that it is serious. We try to converse. There was a clause that bothered me a lot, which was that they could put anything in without my authorization. Imagine if I was recording and I shot myself or said anything, they could put it on. I did not accept it and put the lawyer in, who told me: “If you are now fighting this and they want you to film, it does not make sense.” I was wanting to make a documentary, but with a serious production company. If I do it again, I would do it with an American company, not a Chilean one.
And what is the project about?
They keep interviewing people. I have already told my closest people that I am not going, and that it makes no sense for them to talk. I want to make it clear that I am not in this documentary nor do I know what it is going to be about. I don’t know if it’s to make me shit or it’s going to be fictional. I’m no longer involved. I left due to lack of professionalism and disorganization of the production company. Also, how funny is it to make a biography of someone, in this case, me, if the protagonist is not there.
Are you studying any legal action?
If it bothers me and they happen to carry my image, I will. But I will wait. I do not know if it is something unauthorized, but I am not here and I have not said yes. They went ahead, but I tell people that this question does not smell good to me; that they are going to invent things, because obviously they must not have been happy with me getting off. They had everything, they were in Miami, but I wasn’t going to do something that I wasn’t comfortable with.
