Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes premiering on Prime Video Worldwide on August 26
It’s the question everyone asks. Just how did filmmakers Chris Grubb and Luke Mellows prise England’s most celebrated cricketer, Ben Stokes, out of his shell for their film Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes (produced through Whisper Films and premiering on Amazon Prime on August 26).
Stokes is a formidable sportsman, an all-rounder whose match winning innings in the 2019 England v Australia Test match at Headingley (Leeds, England) is considered as one of the greatest individual cricketing performances of recent times.
The cricketer, though, has his demons. He endured a barrage of negative publicity in advance of his trial in 2018 when he was accused of affray following a street brawl in Bristol in September 2017. (Stokes was acquitted.) He faced mental health issues which led him briefly to stop playing cricket. For understandable reasons, he is generally very guarded with the media.
“It’s a fair question. You’re right about those elements of Ben but there is another element to Ben which is that he doesn’t do things by halves,” Grubb explains how he and Mellows persuaded Stokes to speak so frankly on camera. Once he agreed to participate in the documentary, Stokes was determined to give viewers “an honest slice of his life,” and “not to hide behind anything or sugarcoat anything. He wanted people to get the real him or he didn’t want to do it all. There was no in-between for him.”
Whisper Films is renowned for its coverage of sporting events including cricket – and for the extensive contacts it has built up with prominent figures within the game. After the summer of 2019, when Stokes performed in such heroic fashion at Headingley and elsewhere, the company started discussions with the cricketer and his manager Neil Fairbrother, about the possibility of a film. Stokes was keen.
The filmmakers didn’t known then that they were about to be blown off course by the Covid pandemic. They couldn’t foresee that Shane Warne, the legendary Australian cricketer who provides one of the film’s most perceptive interviews, would die suddenly in the spring of 2022. Nor did they have much inkling of the family tragedy shortly to hit the cricketer as Stokes’ father Ged, based in New Zealand, was diagnosed with brain cancer.
When it came to shaping the film, they relied heavily on the interviews with Stokes that were conducted on their behalf by celebrated film and theatre director Sam Mendes (also an executive producer of the documentary).
“Cricket is my obsession. I am a fanatic of the sport,” Mendes declares at the start of the documentary. The film features material from two long interviews which Mendes conducted with Stokes. He admits that Stokes’ life and story intrigues him “more than any other cricketer.” Stokes, Mendes points out, has experienced dizzying highs…and some crushing blows. In his conversations with Stokes, the cricketer talks in depth about both.
The film has a broadly chronological structure, following the track of the Mendes interviews.
While the documentary was still being made, the co-directors heard “on the news like everyone else that he [Stokes] was taking a break from the game for personal reasons.” They were due to meet the cricketer for the next part of filming just a few days after this announcement.
“This [mental health] is a very sensitive subject. We were very much led by him and his manager,” recalls Mellows. “In all honesty, we expected that interview to be delayed.” Stokes, though, wanted to go ahead. He wasn’t going to duck even the toughest questions.
Grubb describes the way that Stokes discusses the mental health issues as “the most important element of the film…mental health shouldn’t be a taboo. It is actually something that can affect everybody, especially if you’ve been through the numbers of traumatic incidents that Ben has been through.”
Stokes may have experienced some extreme sporting highs, but he has had his set backs on the field too (for example, the disastrous final over he bowled in the 2016 T20 World Cup final when he conceded 4 sixes, effectively losing the match for England). It may be hard for outsiders to understand the demands of elite sport but everyone will be able to relate to Stokes’ experiences of bereavement and loss. It’s a testament to the strength of Stokes’ character that he has come through the bad times and was recently appointed as England captain. He is still the player his teammates seek out for guidance and inspiration.
The filmmakers won’t be drawn on the “Bristol incident.” They prefer (as they put it) play “a straight bat” on that.
The video footage of the street brawl is in the public domain. The filmmakers knew their documentary couldn’t avoid the incident but they were determined to tell the story from Stokes’ perspective, not to make judgements of their own. “We wanted to show it as raw and honestly as we could and really take away any [of our] personal thoughts.”
Ask the filmmakers about future projects and they both sigh. Whisper Films has been frantically busy over the summer. “In the last couple of weeks, we produced the Women’s Euros…and then also we were the host broadcaster for the Joshua v Usyk [World Heavyweight boxing] fight.” There have been plenty of other sporting events to cover too. Yes, the co-directors are cricket fans – although not quite as obsessive about the sport as Sam Mendes. Their hope is that Phoenix from the Ashes, which is released globally by Amazon, will connect with viewers beyond the sport.
“Even if you have never watched a cricket match in your life, we hope there are so many elements in this that people can draw on…it is an extraordinary story,” says Grubb. “Anyone around the world, they don’t need to have watched a cricket game to enjoy or be interested in this film.”
Ben Stokes: Phoenix from the Ashes will premiere on Prime Video Worldwide on August 26.
