Q&A with Maiken Baird
Our first Friday Film Club pick was the documentary, Venus and Serena.
Today, we spoke with one of the filmmakers, Maiken Baird about the film, their sisterhood and what she learned about family, parenting and overcoming adversity.
EMC: What was your mission as you prepared for this documentary? What were you hoping to get out of the story?
Maiken: I was hoping to get to know Venus and Serena on a more personal, human level and to understand how they were able to be each other’s sister and greatest friend as well as each other’s biggest competitor. I wanted to see how they were able to have this closeness we see on the outside. They’re so famous and such icons. I wanted to know if what we see is actually true.
Do you feel like you got the answer to that question?
Yes, at the beginning I wasn’t sure if it was true or not. How could they play each other at the highest levels in one of the most competitive sports for more than a decade and still be so close? I just couldn’t believe it. Then, when we filmed with them starting in January of 2011 and going through the US Open in September of 2011, we realized that in fact, it’s true. They live together, just the two of them and their dogs. They cook together, they sing karaoke together and they really are each other’s greatest supporter and friend. It’s just remarkable. John McEnroe says there’s no way he and his brother could ever have that kind of relationship since they were both in competitive tennis. In most families it would be something very different, but for Venus and Serena, it’s like they’re married.
Do you think their closeness is due to their parents’ influence? Did they mold them to be both competitors and tight sisters?
Definitely, definitely, it was their parents. It all starts with the parenting. I asked the mother how they could be such good friends and she told me, “We dealt with that a very long time ago when they were little girls. We taught them it’s sisters first, family first long before anything else. You guys have to play each other, we know that, but your friendship and sisterhood are way more important than anything else.” They predicted early on that this was going to be something they’d have to deal with on a bigger level.
Did you notice that they had any specific coping skills?
I think part of the reason why they get along so well is because Venus, who is the older of the two, is so gracious and generous with Serena. She’s always happy for Serena even when she beats her. At the French Open when they competed against each other in 2002 and Serena won, Venus even took pictures of her sister’s winning moment. Venus is so protective of her little sister to the point that even when she beats her, she’s so happy for her. It’s amazing.
Their father, Richard Williams is such a strong presence. He comes off as equal parts nurturing and intimidating. Did you see more of one side or the other?
I think that he’s very multl-faceted and complicated and had a very complex background. He has many children from different women. He can be incredibly nice, charming and open on one day and then on other days — he’s not. You never know what you’re going to get with Richard Williams. There’s a sense of walking on eggshells with him not knowing what the next day or next hour is going to bring. On the whole though, I think he’s a loving father. He wasn’t a Joe Jackson kind of stage parent. He was a more loving and generous person to his children and that’s what contributed a lot to their success.
Oracine Price, their mother, seems like the real silent strength in the film.
I think she’s probably the greatest asset the sisters have. She’s given them female strength. She’s the rock and the one who tells them how it is in an ever-so-loving way. It’s the combination of the two parents that worked so well for them. If anyone wants to be a stage parent and wants their kid to be really successful, they should watch this film and take a page out of their book to see how it’s done.
Oracine showed so much restraint. I’m thinking about the scene where she’s being interviewed about how the girls grunt when they hit. She showed so much elegance in that scene, especially in contrast to when she’s walking away and muttering under her breath about how stupid that question was.
Oracine is really funny and controlled and has really good values and she’s instilled that in Serena and Venus.
Do Venus and Serena ever not get along?
Serena is the youngest sister of five girls and gets away with more. The others kind of roll their eyes as if to say, well, she’s the youngest and can be quite bratty. Venus kind of shuts that down, but they never really fought when I was with them. A lot of that was again, Venus just being so gracious to her little sister.
Of all of Richard’s kids, Venus and Serena were the two that he seemed to have the biggest life plan for. Why those two?
In the late 70s he was watching television and saw a girl making $70,000 playing tennis. He decided from there he was going to have two children with Oracine, who was then his wife, and do the same. I think it was more about timing than about the other kids.
What did you take away from this film?
I think this is one of those incredible stories about two women who transcend all boundaries. They’re African American in a traditionally white sport. They’re sisters in the same family. They came from a really poor community. There are just so many layers to what they accomplished. People don’t really know what they had to go through to get where they are. It’s an inspiration.
Every Mother Counts agrees that this film and these sisters provide true inspiration about the power of sisterhood to achieve greatness. That’s our goal with our Summer of Sisterhood — to strengthen the bonds we have with the sisters and women in our lives so we too can achieve powerful goals.
