How is it possible that one of the most powerful and famous families in the world, a family that runs an empire based on fame and access, could be so secretive? To the point of keeping an explosive intra-family drama bottled up … right up until it wasn’t.
In the Netflix docuseries Dynasty: The Murdochs, directors Liz Garbus and Sara Enright take a deep dive ito the Murdoch family empire, from its roots in Australia, to its growth in the U.K., to its U.S. expansion. They explore the influence that Rupert Murdoch has had over media and politics, and the battle between his children Elisabeth, Lachlan and James over who would ultimately have control when the time came.
Lachlan, of course, emerged victorious in that battle, but it wasn’t always a sure thing.
“We are obviously living through a time of extraordinary change in terms of dynasties that are controlling our media,” Garbus says. “It’s something for us to be ever present about, is who is running these companies and what are their personal agendas? How do we look at our news? How do we look at our media diet with that kind of intelligence? So I think that’s just something for all of us to be reflecting on as we take in what’s what’s coming at us, from the left, right and center.”
The Hollywood Reporter spoke with Garbus and Enright to discuss the series, which uses archival interviews with the family, as well as contributions from those that worked with the Murdochs, and the journalists that have covered the family.
What about the Murdoch family and the empire they built and the family dynamics we all saw play out of the last few years, what made that such an interesting subject for you as as documentary filmmakers, and how did this project come together?
Liz Garbus: We made this series for Netflix, about Harry and Meghan. And what was so interesting was, how do you look at institutions through the characters in their midst? So we were speaking with Netflix. And what I’m looking for in storytelling are great characters who reflect the world that we live in, and certainly the succession battles of the Murdochs is exactly that story. It’s a story where you have characters with all their human strengths and flaws going through family dynamics that unfamiliar in their context to almost all of us, but on a human level, can be somewhat familiar. But it’s the stakes, and the real world effects of those inter-family squabbles that play out in all of our lives in the English speaking world. So it’s such a rich area for exploration.
I will say, one of the things that I found so interesting when watching it is that the Murdoch family is a little unique in that it’s a media story, and there’s plenty of stories to tell around the media business, it is a power story, it’s a story about power and attaining power and keeping it, and it’s a family story. Each episode kind of plays at different elements of that. I’m curious when you were putting putting it together, when and how you decided to lean into different parts of that story. Because it seems like there are some moments in time where it’s really about building power. There are other parts where it’s about a family trying to hold itself together or pull itself apart.
Sara Enright: What was interesting about this project was, when we started it, the family dynamics at play were not as well known. So I think we started it really arc-wise, trying to build Rupert’s empire and follow that arc and get to the family as it made sense. And then when we saw the present day machinations that were going on, as they unfolded while we were in production, they kind of changed the nature of our focus to really make it more balanced and more about this family dynamic and less about Rupert, because it was so present day.
The truth is just as shocking as fiction. When you think about a show, like Succession, for example, I think people are like, “oh, that’s, interesting, but it’s a drama. It’s not real.” And then you see all the documents, or hear about all the things that happened in the court case between the family, and you are like “wow, it’s real, this is actually happening, there are families that are actually like this in real life.” Can you help me understand how you pulled it together? I know you used some archival video interviews with with some of the family members, as well as many of the journalists that covered it, some people that knew them personally, what went into the process of figuring out the voices that you wanted to include in the series?
Garbus: We cast a really wide net. There are obviously journalists who have been covering this story for decades, really. And we reached out to some of the best in the business who had been working on this story. We, of course, reached out to members of the family, their representatives, people that they had known. You know, it’s remarkable how much power they have. I mean, how reticent many people are to participate in a documentary is testament to their very real power. But ultimately, over time, we were able to get voices to help us have that inside look in the story from every building block in the empire, from his days in Australia through England through America.
One of the things I wanted to ask about was board game element that serves as an interstitial, I guess, between certain moments in the series where, you have these board game-esque characters representing some of the Murdoch family. Where did that idea come from?
Enright: I think a refrain we heard from people we spoke to was this idea of, it’s a game, The Hunger Games, that kind of game terminology came up a lot, and we were looking for a way to really show the horse race between the kids. So it just felt organic to the story in that way, where it was just an analogy that a lot of people used. We felt like this is a good way to show the power play and what everybody’s kind of working towards in the family, and how they go up and down in their rankings as they work towards that goal.
Garbus: Just to build on that: It’s also, you know, when a family is a business, you know, things that in other families are handled kind of emotionally and personally become scored by the entire country, you know, observed by the entire country. So there is this way in which, you know, something is almost commodified that is actually very personal. And so I think the game is also, is also drawing attention to that, that point, which is, you know, which is actually a little sad for those who are, who are having to play that game, as opposed to having a family life.
Did either of you come away with a perspective that was different or changed at all as it relates to the family dynamic or the empire that the Murdochs created?
Garbus: As Sara mentioned, the story changed as we were making the show. I think that when we started, there were many people who speculated that James and his sisters would never settle, and that they were going to put principles before money and power. And in fact, we saw it play out somewhat differently. So we were on that roller coaster as that reporting came to light just as well.
As someone who’s been living in this in this world for a while, what was your takeaway when you think about having a family that built a media empire that has had so much impact, for better or for worse across so much of the world?
Garbus: In many stories we’re kind of watching on the sidelines, attributing our own wishes and dreams on to players who are actually really very unknown to us. In many of these public figures, we project our image onto them. And you saw that with Harry and Meghan, people making assumptions one way or another about what they would do or wouldn’t do, or what they stood for. I think we’ve done that with the Murdochs as well. When you see how it plays out in court papers, you’re seeing an unvarnished truth, and what folks were actually really ready to do and what their end games were. They were not as we had imagined.
Extraordinarily public people and powerful people, but also kind of a mystery to so many people. It’s quite a dynamic.
Garbus: It’s families, nobody really understands what’s going on in somebody else’s house, right? I think that Succession got at it in the TV show, we’re getting at it, but we’re constantly being surprised.
The interview has been edited for length and clarity,
