{"id":30103,"date":"2025-01-30T00:06:26","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T00:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=30103"},"modified":"2025-01-30T00:06:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T00:06:26","slug":"wow-inside-netflixs-dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-docuseries-what-cheer-and-last-chance-u-director-greg-whiteley-learned-from-following-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=30103","title":{"rendered":"Wow; Inside Netflix\u2019s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Docuseries: What \u2018Cheer\u2019 and \u2018Last Chance U\u2019 Director Greg Whiteley Learned From Following \u2018America\u2019s Sweethearts\u2019 for a Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/VP.yg_YGFTM820THIsiWcg--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTEyNDI7aD04Mjg-\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/variety.com\/fd4d77b10d047deb549d2d28565868d9\" alt=\"Inside Netflix\u2019s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Docuseries: What \u2018Cheer\u2019 and \u2018Last Chance U\u2019 Director Greg Whiteley Learned From Following \u2018America\u2019s Sweethearts\u2019 for a Season\" width=\"630\" height=\"420\" data-nimg=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><em><strong>SPOILER WARNING: <\/strong>This interview discusses plot points from \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,\u201d now streaming on Netflix. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>Last Thanksgiving, Greg Whiteley was on the sidelines at AT&amp;T Stadium in Arlington, Texas as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders put on an electrifying halftime show with special guest, country music icon Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More from Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Emmy-winning documentarian, best known for \u201cCheer\u201d and \u201cLast Chance U,\u201d and his crew had been filming into the wee hours the night before, as workers put the finishing touches on Parton\u2019s stage (which had to be assembled in a way that it could be torn down in a matter of minutes for the game to resume) and the cheerleaders made last-minute tweaks to their formations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cheerleaders get 15 minutes of uninterrupted prime-time coverage. It\u2019s a huge deal. No other cheerleading squad gets this, and they get it every year, so they take it seriously,\u201d Whiteley tells <em>Variety<\/em>. \u201cThey spend so much time rehearsing and preparing for that day, which has become this American tradition \u2014 Thanksgiving with the Cowboys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whiteley compares the production \u2014 that year, a showstopping medley of Parton\u2019s work capped off with a rendition of \u201c9 to 5\u201d \u2014 to riding a bull. \u201cWatching Kelli [Finglass, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders\u2019 longtime director] and the team try and stay on top was breathtaking,\u201d he says, still visibly awestruck by what he witnessed. \u201cI\u2019d sit at home and watch it and go, \u2018Oh, cool. That\u2019s neat,\u2019 and it\u2019s only when you saw just how freaking hard it is, you start to go, \u2018Oh! These are pros!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the third quarter began, Whiteley was in the locker room interviewing Finglass and DCC\u2019s head choreographer Judy Trammell to capture the comedown after the rush of the performance. As the women (both Cowboys cheerleaders in the 1980s) giddily discuss the reaction to Parton rocking the trademark blue and white, star-spangled uniform and cowboy boots, an assistant bursts in with bad news, all of which plays out on screen. Sophy, one of the rookie cheerleaders \u2014 a bubbly blonde, who at 19 years old is one of the youngest on the squad \u2014 is talking to the police. She alleges that, after halftime, a photographer touched her inappropriately. Finglass\u2019 face falls. The bubble has burst and reality hits \u2014 sometimes there\u2019s a downside to all this sparkle.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a sobering moment, one of many that make up the seven-episode series, which made its debut June 20 on Netflix and launched into the top 10 worldwide, with 2.3 million views in its first four days on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>Whiteley and his crew set out to capture the human element behind the squad, filming the cheerleaders on and off the field, from the time of their auditions in May 2023 through the end of the football season in January 2024. The blood, sweat and tears that these professionals put in day after day \u2014 performing through physical and emotional pain while maintaining a certain body type \u2014 for the honor of wearing the uniform. But they also captured the indignities these women smile through, as they aim to protect themselves from overzealous fans and stalkers \u2014 one cheerleader, Kelcey, describes her terror after an AirTag was put on her car to track her \u2014 as well as the incident with Sophy.<\/p>\n<p>On game days, Whiteley would shoot with three or four camera crews: a long lens, a handheld camera and two verit\u00e9 crews. \u201cThat may sound like a lot, but it\u2019s a huge field and the girls are [dancing] in four different quadrants,\u201d he notes. \u201cYou need 200 or 300 of them, so you just do your best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crew\u2019s cameras did not capture what happened to Sophy in that moment, nor did security footage at AT&amp;T Stadium (the results of the investigation are discussed more in-depth in the series). \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was our obligation to tell that part of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whiteley and his crew never hoped to capture anything that disturbing, but his whole purpose with this series was to get underneath the fa\u00e7ade.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn any given day, there is a cheerleader that is going through something: They\u2019re planning a wedding and they\u2019re stressed out about it, or another girl is about to lose her job and she\u2019s kind of freaking out about it,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of them have to sort of set aside their troubles and try and put on this game face to go perform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a \u201cheartbreaking authenticity\u201d to these performances when you see them up close, and for the deeper truths they represent about each of these women, Whiteley says. But the perfection they portray is a double-edged sword.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe problem is, they spend so much time concealing how hard it is. They take something that is extremely difficult and make it look graceful and effortless, so you dismiss it. I witnessed people searching for their seats and buying concessions while they\u2019re performing \u2018Thunderstruck,\u2019\u201d he says, referencing the troupe\u2019s signature pre-game performance, which concludes with a kick line before the women fly into a jump split.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember thinking, \u2018If you knew how hard it was to do what these girls are doing! They\u2019re running several hundred yards, in boots, in two-and-a-half minutes, with a smile, and they\u2019re somehow not sweating!\u201d Whiteley says. \u201cIt\u2019s beautiful and edgy and cool. And people think they just wake up and roll out of bed and do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He quips: \u201cYou could give me a million years. I could never perform a jump split.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read on as Whiteley shares what he learned after following DCC for a season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What was your perception of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders before you started this project?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I came to it as a blank slate.<\/p>\n<p>I assumed that if you spent five years being a cheerleader for the Dallas Cowboys, given that global brand and their reach, how world-famous they are, they would be doing very well financially. Maybe not set for life, but doing well, and that it would be this launching pad to endorsement deals. Almost like I would imagine an Olympic athlete who wins gold.<\/p>\n<p>In defense of the Cowboys organization, they pay commensurate with how dancers are typically paid in the industry. I did not realize that dancers were just not paid, given their level of talent and even their level of exposure. It\u2019s probably part and parcel to the number of people who want to do it versus the number of jobs that there are. So the marketplace, as a result, is not rewarding them in the way that I think they deserve to be rewarded.<\/p>\n<p><strong>That is part of the discourse around this series \u2014 that being an NFL cheerleader is the ultimate pink-collar job. Kat, one of the DCC alumni, says that they\u2019re paid like full-time Chick-fil-A employees. Once you had that information about the pay scale, what did you want this series to say about that reality?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My job as a filmmaker is to simply document what is true, so I don\u2019t know that I had a particular agenda, even after I was armed with that knowledge. Other than I wanted to film what life is like when you are at the top of your class \u2014 if you have aspired to be a professional cheerleader and you\u2019re a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, you\u2019re at Harvard or MIT.<\/p>\n<p>The demands of that are severe. To perform \u201cThunderstruck\u201d at the level that people have expected requires a lot of practice. You are putting in a lot of time into the studio. Not only that, but you\u2019re watching what you eat every day; you\u2019re working out. There is a physical regiment that is expected. And you also have to pay rent. You\u2019ve got to pay bills, so you got to hold down this other job. So how do you juggle all of that?<\/p>\n<p><strong>How much of the CMT show \u201cDallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team\u201d did you watch in prep? Were there elements of that show you took inspiration from, or things you wanted to get away from?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve never seen the CMT show. I know that the show dealt exclusively with making the team, and that is a sort of pre-packaged, ready-made story with a beginning, middle and end. People are coming to audition, they\u2019re going to go through a process, and they either make it or they don\u2019t. So, to that end, I\u2019m sure that the two shows probably have some similarities.<\/p>\n<p>There was a certain way that we, as a filmmaking team, had to be patient and sort of wait out an expectation of how certain scenes would be staged. There was a lot of turning to us and saying \u201cWould it be better if we did this? Would you like us to do this?\u201d And we weren\u2019t used to that. We\u2019re used to just showing up and just waiting for people to kind of be comfortable, to go back to their daily lives. These girls and this team were ready to give us what they want, and it took a long time to persuade them that we didn\u2019t want them to give us <em>anything<\/em>. We want you to be who you are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How then did these seven episodes start to reveal themselves?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Much to the frustration of Netflix executives, for our process, we\u2019re constantly trying to find what these episodes should be. And they\u2019re changing radically \u2014 to the last week of delivery. If you were to give us another month, a month and a half, on this show, it would be a much different show, and would, in my estimation, be way better.<\/p>\n<p>The one thing you can\u2019t possibly buy your way out of is just the time that it takes to look at this footage and feel what is it telling you. Finding a way to be honest and authentic as well as entertaining.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What was the final theme that locked in? What was the thing that made you say, \u201cThis is what \u2018America\u2019s Sweethearts\u2019 is\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I was watching a documentary, and there was a close-up of an eyeball. Something about that that stuck with me. I thought, \u201cI\u2019d like to use that. I want to steal that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was a cheerleader that we were following \u2014 Kelcey, she was the point of the triangle, and has beautiful eyes. I asked her, \u201cWould you mind just sitting here?\u201d and Jonathan Nichols, who is our genius cinematographer, rented a special snorkel lens and a lighting rig to get the shot that I was hoping to get.<\/p>\n<p>It occurred to me, as we were looking at it, that there is a certain beauty standard, not just for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, that all women everywhere have to adhere to or strive for. I noticed that, as you went into that eyeball, it\u2019s really the one part of the human face that you can\u2019t adjust with makeup, and yet, it is breathtakingly beautiful.<\/p>\n<p>Almost to say that, \u201cYes, here is this beautiful woman, but when you get closer, she becomes more beautiful, not less.\u201d That was what we had found: There\u2019s this organization, it gleams, and there\u2019s this sisterhood that, yeah, these cheerleaders are beautiful, they dance great \u2014 but when you get closer to them, and to who they really are, and to their history, it\u2019s not perfect. It isn\u2019t without its flaws or its cracks. But it\u2019s also more beautiful than I think people accounted for.<\/p>\n<p>The next evolution of that shot was the cheerleaders removing their makeup, and that became the closing montage.<\/p>\n<p><strong>I saw it as a metaphor for how vulnerable they\u2019ve been throughout this process.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s great. I wish that would have occurred to me. I didn\u2019t know why I liked it, but now it occurs to me that what you just said is right. There was a certain level of vulnerability, a certain fa\u00e7ade that we had to get rid of, to do the kind of show that I wanted to do. It took a while to get there, but we got there with some of them.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/4tERKwoScTZQiMgaY1QTQQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/variety.com\/4357aed4fa8cd2e9eb34b7cfcea9debc\" alt=\"Inside Netflix\u2019s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Docuseries: What \u2018Cheer\u2019 and \u2018Last Chance U\u2019 Director Greg Whiteley Learned From Following \u2018America\u2019s Sweethearts\u2019 for a Season\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" data-nimg=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\"><\/dialog><\/div><figcaption>Reece, a rookie Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, in \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweethearts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>To clarify, the Cowboys gave y\u2019all a ton of access, but did they want editorial input?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Kelli gave us notes which we always appreciated and which we always ignored. She was very good about it. She even would say, \u201cI know you\u2019re probably going to ignore these, but I think it would be better.\u201d Kelli\u2019s really bright and great, but you cannot have the subject of a documentary telling you how to make it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Well, what did Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, his daughter Charlotte, the organization\u2019s chief brand officer, and the family think? Did you get a chance to show it to them before we watched it at home?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Charlotte and her staff all received cuts before the launch, and she was very complimentary. She said, \u201cYou got us,\u201d which was high praise.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Jones is the reason why I did the show. I didn\u2019t think that we\u2019d be able to do it, because we required total editorial control, and we needed all access. I just assumed we weren\u2019t going to get it, and she said, \u201cI\u2019m open to that, but I just need to meet you first.\u201d In the hour and a half that we were together, I just found myself in the presence of this incredibly intelligent, insightful woman who cared very deeply about this organization, and of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and their place in that organization.<\/p>\n<p>I was so impressed by that. I just thought, \u201cWell, I think there\u2019s something here, and it\u2019s worth taking a run at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>People who\u2019ve watched the CMT show know Kelcey and Victoria, but there are more individual stories told throughout the episodes. How did you zero in on the women to follow?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It happens pretty fast. But if there\u2019s somebody who presents themselves as a potential candidate to be what we would term a \u201cmain character\u201d \u2014 where we dive a little bit deeper into who they are \u2014 we remained open to that up until the last week of shooting. But it helps to find your people early.<\/p>\n<p>Doing this type of verit\u00e9 filmmaking over the last 12 years, for the most part, we\u2019ve pretty much had our pick of anybody we wanted to film. Here, it was interesting. After 16 years of doing the reality TV show, they were used to performing in a certain way that wasn\u2019t congruent with the type of filmmaking we do, and it took a long time to get past that. And with some of the girls, we never got there. It was just a bridge too far. When they started to sense what we wanted, it was too scary. \u201cI don\u2019t want my makeup off. I like how I look with my makeup on,\u201d which is totally understandable. That probably should be the normal human reaction.<\/p>\n<p>But there were a few that were willing to go, \u201cI\u2019m ready to have my story told, and I trust you guys. Let\u2019s go do this.\u201d And that\u2019s who we focused on \u2014 the brave few who were willing to be honest and vulnerable with us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When did you realize that Reece was a main character?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The very second we met her.<\/p>\n<p>Our first day of filming was the day they did their solo auditions, and her solo blew everybody away. But it\u2019s one thing to be a great dancer. It\u2019s after you start talking with her, that realize, \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve met anybody purer in my life.\u201d That became interesting because, if you\u2019re a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, you are sexy, and you don\u2019t necessarily associate that with being uber-religious or pure-minded. And yet, she is.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Victoria opens up throughout the series \u2014 even revealing, somewhat nonspecifically, that she struggles with an eating disorder. How did her story unfold?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s somebody who has been somewhat scarred strangely by the media. She was on the old show, which caught an extremely vulnerable moment with her and there was something about it that was very, very difficult for her to move past. Having your most embarrassing moment broadcast is tough. It\u2019s hard. But given the relationship with Kelli and how that all played out, Victoria was trying to process it in real time, trying to grow up as a person, and trying to move past that very difficult moment when she was cut as a young 18-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>To her credit, she was somebody who never backed away from a question. As I was trying to understand her story better, I would just ask personal questions, and she was right there with an honest and vulnerable answer. As a documentarian, you can\u2019t ask for anything more than that.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve seen this happen over and over again, where people choose to make that leap of faith and be vulnerable, and that is when they are at their most beautiful, their most empathetic. Audiences will see it and immediately see themselves in that person. When all you see is perfection, it\u2019s difficult to penetrate that, to see something in common. And that\u2019s deadly to a storyteller because if you\u2019re not empathizing with the people that you\u2019re watching, you don\u2019t care whether they get what they want. That\u2019s the death of an audience\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n<p>Conversely, if you can get somebody to love somebody, that story can go in a million directions, but the audience will be with them. That\u2019s what\u2019s happening with Victoria.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/ny\/api\/res\/1.2\/tzxiaN6P0lHwn2nOzvHXpQ--\/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU0MA--\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/variety.com\/b0276ae8490524670bee51f11bd1f4d6\" alt=\"Inside Netflix\u2019s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Docuseries: What \u2018Cheer\u2019 and \u2018Last Chance U\u2019 Director Greg Whiteley Learned From Following \u2018America\u2019s Sweethearts\u2019 for a Season\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" data-nimg=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p><dialog aria-label=\"Modal Dialog\" aria-modal=\"true\"><\/dialog><\/div><figcaption>Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders veteran Victoria in \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweethearts.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>One of the critiques of \u201cMaking the Team\u201d was that women of color were rarely a focal point. The same could be said of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweethearts.\u201d What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>[The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders] have a proud history, and if you were to compare them to other performance dance groups, in the late \u201960s, Dee Brock made the decision that she was going to integrate her squad. She was way ahead of her time, and that tradition has continued.<\/p>\n<p>There were a couple of women of color that we were immediately interested in, and they were not interested in us. They had incredible stories \u2014 and I\u2019m not going to tell you those stories, because I hope I\u2019m going to get another crack at it someday \u2014 but they were just not ready to tell them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Would you do another season?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our last two or three weeks of filming, we were just starting to hit our stride. Part of it is the stakes are higher when you\u2019re at a place like The Star, where it is the most financially lucrative, valuable sports franchise in all the world. They have plenty at stake and that breeds a certain culture that\u2019s very buttoned down and can sometimes bump up against a documentary film crew trying to pierce that.<\/p>\n<p>I felt like we were just starting to get there as we were wrapping up, and I\u2019d love to have more time to see if we can get deeper and deeper with more and more of the team.<\/p>\n<p><em>This interview has been edited and condensed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Best of Variety<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sign up for Variety\u2019s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SPOILER WARNING: This interview discusses plot points from \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,\u201d now streaming on Netflix. Last Thanksgiving, Greg Whiteley was on the sidelines at AT&#038;T Stadium in Arlington, Texas as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders put on an electrifying halftime show with special guest, country music icon Dolly Parton. The Emmy-winning documentarian, best known \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":30108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[346,893,443,368,345,892,891],"class_list":["post-30103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-americas-sweethearts","tag-bills","tag-cheerleaders","tag-cowboys","tag-dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders","tag-dolly-parton","tag-greg-whiteley"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wow; Inside Netflix\u2019s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Docuseries: What \u2018Cheer\u2019 and \u2018Last Chance U\u2019 Director Greg Whiteley Learned From Following \u2018America\u2019s Sweethearts\u2019 for a Season - NEWS USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportnews.azontree.com\/?p=30103\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wow; Inside Netflix\u2019s Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Docuseries: What \u2018Cheer\u2019 and \u2018Last Chance U\u2019 Director Greg Whiteley Learned From Following \u2018America\u2019s Sweethearts\u2019 for a Season - NEWS USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SPOILER WARNING: This interview discusses plot points from \u201cAmerica\u2019s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,\u201d now streaming on Netflix. Last Thanksgiving, Greg Whiteley was on the sidelines at AT&amp;T Stadium in Arlington, Texas as the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders put on an electrifying halftime show with special guest, country music icon Dolly Parton. 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