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What was surprising, however, was realizing that the docuseries in question, FX\u2019s \u201cWelcome to Wrexham,\u201d is only obliquely the story of two Hollywood stars bumbling into the world of football.\u202f <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re just reading the headlines, you probably think, \u2018Oh, this show is going to be funny,\u2019\u201d Reynolds says. \u201cIt\u2019s gonna be a fish-out-of-water story about two schmucky showbiz morons going in, falling on their asses, learning as they go. But the show literally does not center us. It centers the town.\u201d <\/p>\n
Executive producing the series with Boardwalk Pictures and others, Reynolds and McElhenney largely ceded the spotlight to Wrexham itself, following players, coaches, pub owners, long-suffering fans and community members as they adjust to the unexpected media attention, share their stories of disappointment and resilience, and gradually start to believe that both the team and the town have a chance at something better.\u202f <\/p>\n
Spoiler alert: Wrexham AFC did not achieve promotion in the season chronicled by \u201cWelcome to Wrexham,\u201d falling just short in heartbreaking fashion. Second spoiler alert: Wrexham finally did achieve promotion in the 2022-23 season, in excruciatingly down-to-the-wire circumstances, and that will be the subject of Season 2. But even knowing those results beforehand doesn\u2019t diminish the impact of the stories on display. <\/p>\n
As McElhenney puts it: \u201cThere\u2019s a certain specific kind of hope that comes from unity, and the unification of a community, and the football ultimately becomes kind of a metaphor for that larger thing.\u201d <\/p>\n
You have a huge number of people that you follow throughout this series, some connected to the club, many of whom aren\u2019t at all. How did you figure out whose stories to tell? <\/p>\n
Rob McElhenney:\u202fThat was the work of the field producers from Boardwalk who just started walking around and asking questions. And they approached it the way journalists might, talking to people and digging into the town and its love for this club. <\/p>\n
Ryan Reynolds:\u202fThey were bursting from the ground and falling from the trees everywhere you looked. We didn\u2019t have enough time to cover all of them. That\u2019s always the wonderful thing about doing a docuseries, is that your job is just to listen. You can either jam something into your pre-existing vision or you can listen and allow it to become what it\u2019s meant to become. Thankfully we did the latter. Ultimately, we got very lucky because even if you\u2019re not rooting for Rob or Ryan, it\u2019s pretty hard not to root for this town.<\/p>\n
How difficult was it to come to Wrexham with a camera crew, asking the community to open up about their personal lives, at the same time you\u2019re trying to win trust as the new owners of their football club? <\/p>\n
Reynolds:\u202fIt was so weird. I think it\u2019s easy to sit here and look at it like it\u2019s a TED Talk, where we can say, \u201cThis is how we did it, and this is why we\u2019re so great to have thought of this thing.\u201d But the truth is we didn\u2019t know a fucking thing when we went in there. We knew our hearts were in the right place, we knew we had an agenda that centered on them, not us. But other than that, we didn\u2019t have a clue. Then you start to see what\u2019s working, and water those plants a little more and watch them grow. Suddenly people are embracing the cameras all around, and \u2014 not to be too esoteric about it \u2014 realizing that these cameras are communicating the story of Wrexham to the rest of the planet.\u202f <\/p>\n
I\u2019d never done anything where I was part of a docuseries, and I really struggled at the beginning. There\u2019s a moment in the series where I\u2019m joking that I didn\u2019t know that I had the option to\u202fnot\u202fappear on camera all the time. And that was true! I really wasn\u2019t super comfortable with it. Halfway through, I eventually started to forget that there were cameras there and was able to kind of let it go and be emotional \u2014 even if that means you say something where your foot might end up in your mouth. <\/p>\n
McElhenney:\u202fIt was definitely a war of attrition with Ryan, who was very clearly uncomfortable from the very beginning. I treated that with as much respect as I could, bringing cameras to speak with everybody else. People assume that because we\u2019re used to having cameras around us that we\u2019re comfortable having them document our private lives, and nothing could be further from the truth. It puts you in a very vulnerable position, because there\u2019s nowhere to hide and all that people see is\u202fyou. What you see on the show is Ryan, what you see is me and what you see is that town. Although I recognized that I\u2019m coming at it from a different perspective [as an executive producer], because even though being on camera might be somewhat vulnerable for me, I\u2019m in a certain position of power when I\u2019m looking at the footage coming in, because I can dictate what goes in the show and what doesn\u2019t. I have a tremendous amount of empathy and respect for that. After the first episode aired, I was grateful to hear from several people that there was a collective sigh of relief that we weren\u2019t there to make exploitative television, we were there to celebrate them. <\/p>\n
There are definitely some stark moments, like in the second episode where you have a coaching change and several players who are not signed on to new contracts, where you focus entirely on what those decisions mean for these people. <\/p>\n
McElhenney:\u202fThose were really difficult moments. You realize this is not a game, this is not a television show, these are people\u2019s lives. We do not take any of that lightly, and we were on camera making those decisions. But it was a conscious choice to not put that into the documentary, because it didn\u2019t seem fair to the people who were going through the real difficult thing in that situation to focus it on us, as if our agony was more important than theirs. It certainly was not. <\/p>\n
When the series starts, the pandemic is still ongoing. Was there a point where you realized that this was partially the story of a town finally coming together after lockdown? <\/p>\n
Reynolds:\u202fI think it\u2019s less about a town emerging from the pandemic and more about a town emerging from post-Thatcherism. A town that was pretty much wiped out, many of their core industries gone, people doing the best with what they can. I think that was the theme that was more prevalent in the faces, words and actions of the people in the town. The club is kind of a conduit for the town, and how it\u2019s hard to trust something when things have been so difficult for so long. <\/p>\n
How did you have to change your approach to the season after you knew that Wrexham had just missed out on promotion? How far along were you at that point? <\/p>\n
McElhenney:\u202fIt was devastating. We had two or three episodes already done and edited. We had all of these high hopes that there was going to be a happy ending, and we had to sit down and make the rest of the series knowing that it was going to have this tragic end \u2014 and figure out how to approach it. Maybe it was just me justifying the loss so that I could feel better, but I remember having many conversations with Ryan saying, \u201cWe knew that we had a second season already picked up, and we knew that we were gonna start filming again in a few months \u2026 as a chairman, this is terrible. But as a storyteller, it\u2019s really not that bad?\u201d<\/p>\n
I mean, Rocky didn\u2019t win at the end of the first \u201cRocky.\u201d Because the point wasn\u2019t that he beat Apollo Creed, it was that he proved to himself that he mattered, and he could keep getting up. So, we knew there was an ending to the story there that could be profound. But it definitely sets up an expectation for Season 2. Because there really is no \u201cRocky II\u201d where Rocky loses to Apollo Creed again. <\/p>\n
Reynolds: \u202fBut all roads lead to here, so no regrets at all. I\u2019m so grateful for the experiences of that first big season, even with the fact that the club didn\u2019t get promoted, because it laid the groundwork for one of the most exciting seasons, I think, in National League football history. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever felt anxiety ratcheted up like [at the end of the 2022-23 season]. It wasn\u2019t enjoyable for me. It was hell going into the Notts County game this year, actual hell. The fact that the team managed to pull it out in the last second was so perfectly Wrexham. Wrexham always finds some way to string out the drama until you\u2019re quite convinced your heart has beat its last beat. There\u2019s that football expression that Rob taught me: \u201cSqueaky bum time.\u201d I now completely understand squeaky bum time.\u202f <\/p>\n
View this article at Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Welcome to Wrexham\u2019: Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on Getting Vulnerable, Rejuvenating a City and Gearing Up for Dramatic Season 2: As far as unexpected show business stories go, the late 2020 news that actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney were taking on ownership of Wrexham AFC \u2014 a historic football club then playing in
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