July 16, 2024
One day, after filming an interview, I looked up from the catering line and found Serena Williams standing across from me. By this point we had spoken a lot. We’d even watched the finals of Wimbledon together. But still, when it’s Serena Williams filling up a Chipotle bowl right across from you, it takes you aback.
We started talking, and as it often did with her, the conversation turned towards a meditation on greatness. “We all have something wrong with us,” she said, using “we” to mean, you know, her fellow members in the “Greatest of All Time” club. “Michael has his gambling…Tiger has all of his stuff,” she continued, name checking the fellow members of the club. And then she paused for a moment. “You know, except for Roger. I never could find out what’s wrong with him.” She let out a big laugh. Serena is always laughing.
For over a year, I got to know Serena and her story while working as a story producer for the 8-part ESPN series In the Arena: Serena Williams. I did mountains of research, combing over 100,000 pieces of archival material to put together her story. I worked with the network and our production company to shape all aspects of the narrative, from interviews and interview subjects to the plot of each of the 8 episodes. What the show became, ultimately, was a meditation on greatness—on probing deeper into that discussion over lunch one day, to try to figure out what causes someone to chase the lofty title of Greatest of All Time.
Each episode came to detail one of the most iconic matches of Serena’s career, and in the process, we hear the story of her life.
These are tennis wins, but it’s also a story of sisterhood, grief, faith, love, motherhood, legacy, and so much more. Each episode is full of life and laughter and, since, it’s Serena we’re talking about, a whole lot of laughs.
Trailer
Watch the trailer of In the Arena: Serena Williams.