{"id":363535,"date":"2025-11-08T02:23:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T02:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363535\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T02:23:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T02:23:14","slug":"alex-rodriguez-comes-clean-in-revealing-interview-about-hbo-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/363535\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Rodriguez Comes Clean in Revealing Interview About HBO Doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThroughout his Hall of Fame-worthy (go ahead and @ me, bro) Major League Baseball career, Alex Rodriguez<\/a> did not always play clean. In new HBO<\/a> docuseries Alex vs. ARod<\/a>, directed by Gotham Chopra<\/a> and Erik LeDrew, Rodriguez finally comes clean<\/a> about his on-again, off-again performance-enhancing drug (PED) use, and the untruths he told to cover it up along the way.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the doc as well as in our conversation below, Rodriguez, now 50, is forthcoming, thoughtful and an excellent conversationist. If only he had been able to tap into this part of himself<\/a> a decade earlier, baseball writers<\/a> may have given him a pass to Cooperstown by now. But in life, as in baseball, not everything\u2019s a home run \u2014 there are errors and strikeouts along the way, too. Alex vs. ARod taps into all most of that.<\/p>\n

\n\tStepping up to the plate for a The Hollywood Reporter Q&A below is number 13, Alex Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tYou could have done a documentary years ago or years from now \u2014 or, of course, never. Why did now seem like the right time for you to open yourself up?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve been asked about doing some type of documentary probably for the last 15 years, and I just never thought about it. It was always a quick, hard, \u201cNo way. I\u2019m too close to it. Too soon. What\u2019s the purpose?\u201d All these years later, I think I have the perspective going back now to say, \u201cYou know what? I\u2019ve never really told my story in any way, shape or form. And there\u2019s some things that have been told about me that are super accurate and some that are wildly inaccurate, and I\u2019ve never really tried to play the correction game. One is that there\u2019s this centaur \u2014 half-horse, half-me \u2014 painting in my apartment. I mean, this (Rodriguez on Zoom gestures to surroundings) is my apartment. I promise you, there\u2019s nothing like that here. But I\u2019ve never tried to correct that. That\u2019s been a [reported] story out there that\u2019s never been corrected, because I think it\u2019s actually comical. But that\u2019s one example of something that never happened and will never happen \u2014 not because I don\u2019t have a healthy ego, I\u2019m just not that creative.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was important [to do the docuseries] too, because my lessons were so ugly and deep and punitive. So much was at stake \u2014 I lost that Hall of Fame and other things \u2014 that as I mentor kids today, one of the things that I do is I always lead with my biggest mistakes, and if my mentees can take one thing away, is if they can avoid one of my mistakes, that is a big [reason].<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m biased in your case. But I\u2019m also a writer and in general, I don\u2019t like the punitive nature of baseball writers withholding the Hall of Fame from PED users. Do you really think you\u2019ll never get in? Like, not late, not even posthumously \u2014 which I still believe would be unfair \u2014 but never?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know. Honestly, I don\u2019t know. I hope for the best, plan for the worst. In many ways, that\u2019s why I\u2019ve given up on it already, because I knew the rules. I broke [them]. I gotta lay in my bed now, and that\u2019s the league we live in, and I\u2019m not gonna change that. But what I can do is take those lessons, learn from them and move it forward. I\u2019ve done the best I could over the last decade.<\/p>\n

\n\tI had this as a Top 10 World Series ever before Game 7. Now I have it Top 5, though I admit I don\u2019t actually have spelled-out rankings. Where would you rank this past World Series? <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWell, I\u2019ll tell you. I\u2019m 50. I don\u2019t remember the first five, but I\u2019ve probably watched every World Series game the last 45 years. I\u2019m lucky that I played in six of them. For Fox, I cover them and analyze them and study it. I think it\u2019s top five, and I have reasons for that. As far as just viewership, if you look at the last 10 years, we\u2019ve probably averaged somewhere between 12-14 million people watching. This year, Game 7 was at the peak almost 32 million viewers [in the U.S.] \u2014 it was the most-watched World Series of all time, when you include the different interests, parties and countries. Obviously, America doesn\u2019t include one person from Canada \u2014 millions of people there. Then you go to Japan, Latin America, the rest of the world. But when you have unicorns like Ohtani \u2014 you\u2019ve never seen this before. He\u2019s the perfect combination of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens \u2014 oh, by the way, Ricky Henderson. He\u2019s also six-foot-four. He\u2019s just a beautiful-looking person. And then his teammate, Yamamoto, has now established himself as the greatest pitcher in our game today. We\u2019ve never seen three wins a matter of seven, eight days \u2014 it\u2019s unheard of.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tShohei Ohtani with the Commissioner\u2019s Trophy.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRonald Martinez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tThe series had so many moments \u2014 center fielders trucking left fielders, base-running blunders, walk offs, extra-innings games. What will you remember the 2025 World Series for, ultimately?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThen on the other side, you have a whole country that hasn\u2019t won in 32 years, led by baseball royalty \u2014 Vlad Guerrero Jr., we saw his father play for 17 years. A Hall of Famer who never won a title, and Vlad was trying to have his Joe Carter moment to give the ring to his father. From an analyst point of view, this is the yummiest, most delicious, easiest series to cover. One of my mentors, John J. Filippelli, who started the YES Network for George Steinbrenner, says every good series has the three S\u2019s: Superstars, Strategy and Storyline, and we had that in abundance.<\/p>\n

\n\tBig picture, a lot of the data and analytics has stolen the game away from us. And we\u2019re bringing the glory days back that you and I fell in love with, which is a little bit more unscripted. There\u2019s nothing worse when something\u2019s scripted, right? When you\u2019re trying to figure out exactly what you\u2019re going to do \u2014 no matter what the outcome is or what\u2019s going on or who\u2019s hurt \u2014 at 10 o\u2019clock in the morning for what\u2019s going to happen at 10 o\u2019clock at night. And what was reintroduced was starting pitching. Nothing drives me crazier than a starter in a World Series game, and then you\u2019re going to have eight or seven pitchers pitching. So great starting pitching, great strategy, the game in motion, fantastic defense. The Blue Jays\u2014 their last error was made Oct. 5, right? It\u2019s just incredible. They played all these days. We\u2019ve probably had more hit and runs in this World Series than the last five or seven combined. It was really, really old-school baseball.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the Dodgers, the class of baseball, the first team in Major League Baseball history to surpass a billion dollars in gross revenue. If they\u2019re lucky, there\u2019s probably two NFL teams that have gone over a billion dollars. The Dallas Cowboys have, and I\u2019m not sure who the other is, if any. So, the Dodgers are really just a master class at all levels. It\u2019s not just about just about having riches, it\u2019s about taking those riches and deploying the right capital into the right players with the right strategy. And here you go.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in your day, when you were the highest-paid player in the game, was the concept of Ohtani\u2019s contract-structure even around?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI was actually surprised [by Ohtani\u2019s contract]. I\u2019ve never seen a contract where you get a $700 million guarantee, but over the length of the contract, you only get $20 million, which is two a year. I was having a hard time wrapping my head around that.<\/p>\n

\n\tI started in the major leagues at 18, a few months moved from my high school at Westminster Christian. I was this innocent kid playing with Ken Griffey Jr. and Lou Pinella and Jay Buhner and Randy Johnson. I signed this contract, and I literally overnight became public enemy No. 1. I felt like I committed a felony or something. Publicly, I really had made no major mistakes, no missteps \u2014 it was all pretty good. And everywhere I went, I got destroyed by other fans. That was wildly confusing as a 24 year old. What makes me really happy is a paradigm shift that we\u2019ve had a quarter century later. You have Ohtani at $700 million; Juan Soto almost at $800 million. These guys have become iconic heroes, celebrated as they should. The power shifted from ownership to players.<\/p>\n

\n\tA huge part of your docuseries is, of course, you coming clean about PED usage that you had previously denied or at least deflected. Not bullshitting ourselves can be a lifelong process \u2014 clearly you\u2019ve come a long way. How truthful would you say you were in the doc?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYou saw it, right?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt was very, very raw. I don\u2019t think in a three-episode thing you can be 100 percent honest about everything. <\/p>\n

\n\tBecause of omission.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tRight. But what was covered was very, very, very accurate.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve dated several very public figures<\/a>, but none are in the docuseries. Your ex-wife, of course, is. There\u2019s an audience for that part of a tell-all. How come you didn\u2019t go there?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tPart of the few rare benefits of getting a bit older is that hopefully you get a little smarter. You get more pattern recognition, and one of the things that has served me well is having a little bit more low profile of a life. I enjoy my life today more than I ever have. I\u2019m incredibly grateful, I have two beautiful daughters. I\u2019m surrounded by people I love and respect. Being a part of team ownership with the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Lynx is the dream of my life that I\u2019m living out with one of my best friends in Mark Lore. I\u2019ve never been big about sharing my private life \u2014 and less now.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRodriguez with Derek Jeter.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Fanatics<\/p>\n

\n\tMy unpopular sports<\/a> opinion is that there isn\u2019t a \u201cclutch\u201d gene, and that those who seem to perform in the biggest moments are the benefactors of opportunity and coincidence in a small sample size, and those who do not are the victims of the same. One of the knocks on you was that you weren\u2019t clutch, which ended when you won us the 2006 World Series. Aaron Judge is kind of in the same boat today \u2014 what are your thoughts on being \u201cclutch\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI think it\u2019s impossible to not to be clutch and drive in 2,000 runs or score 2,000 runs or hit .300 in your career \u2014 or close to .300 \u2014 in 15,000-20,000 at-bats. There\u2019s got to be a clutch gene in there somewhere. You\u2019ve got to find some clutch RBIs, right? And I feel the same way about Aaron Judge.<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t believe in stats in October, I believe in moments. Miguel Rojas isn\u2019t going to have the best stats in the history of the game, but he had one of the most memorable moments in the last century.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou know who Mr. November is?<\/p>\n

\n\t[Derek] Jeter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMr. October?<\/p>\n

\n\tReggie [Jackson]. <\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tSo my point is that it\u2019s the moments, not statistics. I learned this because Derek said it before Game 7. What Derek said about himself was, paraphrasing, \u201cI stunk that series, but I had a pretty cool moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne thing that wasn\u2019t totally clear to me in the series is, did you buy your late therapist\u2019s home? Or just get access for the shoot?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo [it was just for the film]. Just for the record, it\u2019s in the middle of nowhere. I would fly to Denver Sunday night, have dinner and check into this little kind of treehouse hotel in the middle of nowhere. But it was really charming and dark and cool. You land in Denver and drive like an hour and a half through the snow, very slow, and then I would be there. My therapy would start at nine o\u2019clock and it would end at five o\u2019clock every day, Monday through Friday. It\u2019s called intense therapy \u2014 it was the hardest thing I had to do in my life.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen you came to the Yankees from Texas, the consensus was you were a better shortstop than Jeter. You switched to third base and played very well there, but it was never your best position. In hindsight, would the Yankees have made more World Series with you at short and Derek at third?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I don\u2019t think we would have been any better. Derek\u2019s a Hall-of-Fame shortstop, many gold gloves. I can see you\u2019re very smart baseball fan and a great student of the game, but I honestly think people are overly obsessed with Derek and I. <\/p>\n

\n\tI agree<\/strong>, in terms of personal relationship.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tMy number-one thing that I\u2019m most proud of \u2014 and I think he mentioned it in his documentary \u2014 is that he said, \u201cOne of the things I respect about Alex is that he gave me his word that he was coming to be a third baseman and a third baseman only. And after 15 years of being his teammate or so, he did exactly that. I never heard one rumor that he wanted my position.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLook how cool life is. You cut almost 20 years later \u2014 I\u2019m the shortstop on our Fox desk, and now he\u2019s playing third base.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tRodriguez is the chatty face in front of the lens, but the two behind the camera, Chopra and LeDrew, also have a lot to say about their latest project, which follows sports-documentary \u201cfirst-name vs.\u201d collabs Tom vs. Time and Stephen vs. The Game \u2014 especially LeDrew. THR asked both men to answer a few key questions via email, purposefully independent of Rodriguez\u2019s hazel eyes.<\/p>\n

\n\tRead that mini Q&A below.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tDid you find Alex to be 100 percent truthful and forthcoming?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tGOTHAM CHOPRA<\/strong> In the totality of the project across the two-plus years that we were in production, yes, we got an honest and accountable version of the mistakes he made in the past. Did he answer fully every single question we asked in the 20-plus interviews we probably did during all that time? No. But I am not sure anyone would really be capable of that, considering how long ago some of these events happened and because I think he still feels a lot of shame and embarrassment from some of those things. I believe him when he says \u2014 in his own words \u2014 he\u2019s still a \u201cwork in progress\u201d and finds himself occasionally falling back into bad habits where he says either things he thinks will sound best, or that are \u201ctruthful enough\u201d that it will enable him to slip by without having to get into all the details.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRussell Westbrook, Gotham Chopra and Erik LeDrew.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tERIK LEDREW <\/strong>To the extent any of us can be 100 percent truthful and forthcoming about the most painful moments of our lives: Yes. Absolutely. Getting there was a process as well, much like therapy \u2014 two steps forward one day, one-and-a-half steps backward the next. It was a long, taxing, non-linear process. Demanding for Alex, certainly, but also for us. Not just from a factual perspective, which was of course paramount, but also a humanist perspective. When you ask someone to wade knowingly into their shit and on-camera: a) you\u2019ve gotta go first; and b) you\u2019ve got to make space for doubt, resistance and interpersonal conflict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd if today\u2019s not the day to be 100 percent truthful, maybe we can get 70 percent of what we need and come back tomorrow. You try to design the process to get as many bites at the apple as possible. Not just in the chair, but in the car, in the snow, at 40,000 feet, during breakfast, after a cocktail, etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019re also looking for a greater truth than a quick reference, bullet-point fact sheet could capture \u2014 I want honesty, but also emotional truth. Not just\u00a0what happened\u00a0and\u00a0how, but\u00a0how did it feel \u2014 put us in your shoes \u2014\u00a0and, perhaps above all,\u00a0why?<\/p>\n

\n\tThose kinds of truths don\u2019t come easily to any of us \u2014 we\u2019re lucky if they come at all in most cases. And in this case, I have so much compassion and respect for Alex\u2019s willingness to trust us and trust the process, even when \u2014\u00a0especially\u00a0when\u00a0\u2014\u00a0it really fucking hurt.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn those moments when fear and anxiety and shame threatened to undermine, derail or otherwise deep-six this film, I tried to remind Alex that, if he wasn\u2019t scared and anxious and slightly triggered, we wouldn\u2019t be doing our jobs. An ethos our resident rockstar\/creative therapist Lindsay Shookus repeated as often as possible to every single one of us when the shit hit the fan. This isn\u2019t to say we were behaving like wrecking balls in Alex\u2019s psyche \u2014 though I\u2019m sure it felt that way to him at times, and the feeling was probably mutual \u2014 but if you hope to create anything of depth, nuance and substance, you\u2019ve gotta approach this territory with reverence and sensitivity. Respect, yes, but grace and compassion, non-judgement above of all, even as you continue to press inexorably on his pressure points.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis isn\u2019t just a documentary-purist, bleeding-heart POV I\u2019m extolling here \u2014 whether fiction film or non. We storytellers would all do well to approach our material with a high degree of respect for the pain of being alive. It may sound counter-intuitive, but this actually sharpens the result. It\u2019s really the only way you\u2019re gonna make anything that cuts deep enough to draw blood \u2014 and if you\u2019re not trying to make something like that, a work of guts and integrity, then what the hell are you doing?<\/p>\n

\n\tTo quote the late, great Billy Wilder, \u201cIf you\u2019re not playing with fire, you\u2019re wasting my time\u201d \u2014 words to live by.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTo his credit, Alex understood this. Even in our most contentious, fraught moments (like that phone call at 6:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve). Alex knew it would hurt the project to bullshit us. Of course, that didn\u2019t necessarily make it hurt him any less in the moment. Sometimes, you\u2019ve gotta just let a triggered person burn themselves out and calmly say, \u201cI hear you, man. That sucks. Let\u2019s go again.\u201d Easier said than done, of course.<\/p>\n

\n\tWas anything off limits? I couldn\u2019t help but notice none of his very high-profile relationships with public figures were mentioned. Obviously his ex-wife is a participant.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tCHOPRA<\/strong> There were no \u201crules of engagement\u201d so no, nothing was off limits. In terms of his past relationships, we did refer to them visually in some of the sections about his crazy off-field life, indiscretions, ubiquity on Page Six etc. when he first joined the Yankees. And again, he talked candidly about those mistakes and regrets. In terms of his most recent high-profile relationship with Jennifer Lopez, we had made a conscious effort to really focus on his baseball career \u2014 and specifically his PED use \u2014 and not necessarily to do the total biopic. Alex definitely pushed us to include his purchase of and role with the Timberwolves, but we told him, \u201cSorry pal, maybe for the sequel!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLEDREW<\/strong> In terms of subject matter, no, and that was something we had to have clear alignment on from the start. If he wasn\u2019t gonna go there, then we were all wasting our time. These kinds of epic docs take too much time and energy to strive for anything less than the greatest possible result. We agree we would talk about everything \u2014 the highs and lows. The grand, creative bargain we struck at the outset, before we\u2019d pitched anything to anyone went something to the effect of: We\u2019ll honor the rise, but you better go hard on the fall. I remember Alex nodded gravely, brows pinched, and saying \u201cgood, ok\u201d and \u201cpeople are smart, they know when you\u2019re full of shit.\u201d Once that was explicitly agreed, we could lean on it anytime we felt like the process was stalemating.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere were certain individuals, maybe some of them implied by your question, who were never going to be involved in this project, for whatever reason. These people weren\u2019t so much an \u201coff-limits\u201d prerogative as they were people we considered including at various points for a variety of reasons, but ultimately decided were best left out. Alex has lived a spectacularly messy, gloriously complicated life and there are a lot of people who he\u2019s had to work hard to make amends with. As long as we could tell the story coherently, and with a high-degree of integrity, then we weren\u2019t interested in dragging certain people from Alex\u2019s past into the film proper for the sake of a stunt or a sound bite that wasn\u2019t genuinely illuminating and intimately connected to Alex\u2019s central conflict in some way. Either our subjects were relevant, compelling characters of agency and depth in the narrative we were exploring, and in which case, we interviewed them \u2014 or they weren\u2019t, and so we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s worth mentioning, there were only two interview requests that were declined: Alex\u2019s former agent, Scott Boras, and former MLB commissioner Bud Selig. I wish we\u2019d had the opportunity to interview them, but it\u2019s their right to decline. I think they said enough at the time on the record that their voices are represented in a way that\u2019s fair and accurate, but they can be the judge of that.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was our intent to make a film of integrity and vision, and anyone willing to spend the runtime of Lawrence of Arabia with Alex vs. ARod \u2014 I\u2019ll hope we have earned that time. But I\u2019ll let them be the judge of that, too.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tHBO and HBO Max premiered the first of three Alex vs. ARod episodes last night \u2014 the final two episodes will roll out over the next two Thursdays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Throughout his Hall of Fame-worthy (go ahead and @ me, bro) Major League Baseball career, Alex Rodriguez did…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":363536,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[12859,176166,171,176167,5560,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-363535","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-alex-rodriguez","9":"tag-alex-vs-arod","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-gotham-chopra","12":"tag-hbo","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115511703350927010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}