«"Find out the truth.".
That was the simple instruction director and executive producer Alexandria Stapleton received from Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson when she began working on Sean Combs: The Reckoning.
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A four-part Netflix documentary examines allegations of sexual abuse, human trafficking, and legal battles surrounding Sean "Diddy" Combs.
Stapleton and Jackson began working behind the scenes to get to the bottom of the allegations, but they couldn't tell any of it without the larger story of Combs' rise to power in the music industry. This became the central point at the beginning of the documentary.
However, despite numerous accusations, no indictment was ever brought at the initial stage.
«"The biggest challenge was figuring out how to cut through the noise on social media and have meaningful conversations," says Stapleton. "I knew my plan of action had to be exactly that, and I'd have to follow that yellow brick road.".
Stapleton's directing credits include Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel, Hello, Privilege: It's Me, Chelsea, Silver Linings Playbook, and Reggie. Combined with Jackson's involvement as an executive producer, she managed to win over those who had opposed Combs.
She knew she wasn't about to tell a scandalous story. Stapleton took her time with interviews, often spending eight to twelve hours with her interviewees. "You can't just rush into talking to victims who tell of physical and sexual abuse," she says.
Editors Jack Gravina, Evan Wise, Charles Divac, and Benji Kast pieced together fragments of Stapleton's footage, mixing it with footage shot by Combs shortly before his arrest in 2024.
Aubrey O'Day, whom Combs recruited to join his girl group Danity Kane on "Making the Band" in the early 2000s, was one of those interviewed to help piece together the puzzle. On the show, she opened up about her former boss and the trauma she experienced.
But the question was where to place it. At one point, the scene even moved from one episode to the next. "One time, it was the opening scene. At the end of episode three, it was at the end of episode four, at the beginning of episode four," says Divac. "We moved it all over the place.".
This finally happened in the fourth and final episode.
«"It felt so much more earned because you'd been on this journey with her in the third episode, learning about her experiences, and growing to love her as a person," Divac explains. "Now she's going through something she doesn't even know happened. It's all shrouded in the fog of lawsuits, and she doesn't want to distract from other people suing, but at the same time, she doesn't know if it actually happened to her—but she has no doubt that it probably could have happened to her, because it's similar to other stories that have been told.".
When O'Day read a court case for the first time, she paused and addressed the camera, stumbling slightly. She needed a break to process everything she was going through.
The documentary's plot took a surprising turn when the verdict was reached and Combs was found guilty on two counts of transporting persons for the purpose of prostitution.
«"It changed the way we told this story," says Divac. People who wanted to speak out were afraid, while others decided to tell the truth. "The verdict put pressure on all of us to tell the full story—because the true story never came out in court.".
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