The Fall of Diddy directors Yoruba Richen and Emma Schwartz talk to The Contending about how Sean Combs became popular during a time of particular misogyny and avoided cancel culture. . .until now.
Investigation Discovery’s The Fall of Diddy drops us into the story during Grammys weekend back in 2010.
At the Beverly Hills Hotel, Sean “Diddy” Combs storms into his girlfriend Cassie’s suite, goes into her room, and shuts the door in a rage, terrifying makeup artist, Mylah Morales, who witnesses the whole incident. When Cassie emerges, she’s covered in bruises.
Co-director Yoruba Richen says she and co-director Emma Schwartz debated on how to start their documentary before settling on this particular moment.
“There are many different starts,” says Richen. “How we started it felt like we’re getting a sense of the bigness of Diddy and the fact that this alleged abuse had happened even before the Cassie moment [caught on video], which is where most people first saw it. It had to do a couple of different things in that open.”
Schwartz says that they also had to consider how much of the story people knew.
“Are people oversaturated with the story?” says Schwartz. “How do you help people feel the relevance and want to learn more than they think they know? We would hope there’s a lot more that you learned watching this documentary than you would have learned following the coverage.”
Watch my conversation with Richen and Schwartz where we discuss how they supported these unforgettable interviews, how Episode 5’s “The Assistant” came together, and whether Combs has seen their doc.
