Mr. T Just Called His Own Netflix Documentary “Garbage” — And He’s Not Holding Back on Why

Netflix’s ‘Untold’ docuseries has built a reliable audience by digging into the more complicated corners of sports and celebrity history, tackling subjects ranging from boxer Christy Martin to football star Manti Te’o. Its latest batch of episodes turns the spotlight on three very different figures, including quarterback Vince Young, Olympic breakdancer Raygun, and cultural icon Mr. T.

For Mr. T, now 74 and born Laurence Tureaud, that spotlight has followed him for more than four decades, ever since his breakout as Clubber Lang in ‘Rocky III’ and his run as B.A. Baracus on ‘The A-Team’ turned him into one of the most recognizable faces of the 1980s. With Netflix’s ‘Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool’ premiering September 8, fans might have expected him to embrace the retrospective treatment.

Instead, Mr. T has come out swinging against the film itself, telling The Guardian in a new interview that watching the finished cut genuinely upset him because of how much it left out. He didn’t hold back on his overall verdict, calling the documentary “garbage” and accusing the filmmakers of building him up early on only to undercut him later.

His biggest specific grievance involves how little screen time was given to the people and causes closest to him. He noted that his own pastor sat for two full days of interviews yet appeared for roughly 30 seconds in the final film, a detail he pointed to as proof that his faith, family values, and years of charity work, including his involvement with Make-A-Wish, his time in the U.S. Army, and his participation in Nancy Reagan’s Just Say No campaign, were largely sidelined in favor of his tougher public image.

Mr. T also pushed back hard against the documentary’s suggestion that his career slowdown stemmed from poor decisions or difficult behavior behind the scenes. According to him, stepping back from Hollywood after ‘Rocky III’ was entirely his own choice, made once he’d already accomplished what he set out to do and provided for his mother, not the result of squandered opportunities or chasing money he insists never motivated him in the first place.

One particular sore spot involves the film’s inclusion of unflattering comments from his former agent regarding the 1993 cult film ‘Freaked,’ in which Mr. T played a sideshow performer before leaving the production with a few days of shooting still remaining. That agent has since publicly responded to Mr. T’s criticism by wishing him well and saying he forgives him, even as the two clearly remember the professional fallout from that project differently.

Beyond the specific omissions, Mr. T framed the documentary’s overall approach as part of a familiar and frustrating pattern, describing it as an example of someone else trying to reshape and control his own story in a way he feels distorts who he really is to audiences who don’t already know him personally. Netflix and the documentary’s director have so far declined to publicly respond to his criticism.

It’s a striking bit of promotional turbulence for a project designed to celebrate its subject, and it places Mr. T among a growing number of documentary subjects who’ve spoken out against how their stories were ultimately shaped after losing creative control once cameras stopped rolling. Whether or not the finished film changes anyone’s mind, Mr. T has made it unmistakably clear that he doesn’t feel it captures the full picture of who he is.

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