Mr. T came to promote his new Netflix documentary. He ended up trashing it instead.
In a candid interview with The Guardian ahead of the September 8 premiere of Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool, the 74-year-old A-Team and Rocky III star made clear he is not happy with how his life has been portrayed on screen. “The documentary pissed me off, because they didn’t cover a lot of stuff,” he said. “When I saw it I was like: ‘What the heck?’ It’s garbage. You build me up, then you try to punk me out. I said: ‘Wow man, I’m more than that.'”
At the center of his frustration is what the film leaves out. Mr. T says his Christian faith, Army service, charity work and decades of community advocacy received far too little attention while stories reinforcing his tough-guy image were given considerably more room. His pastor was interviewed for two days but appeared on screen for roughly 30 seconds. “That’s what we call, in the Black community, a white man wanting to change the story and control the narrative,” he said. “If you don’t know me, you’re gonna think I’m some monster.”
Mr. T also pushed back against the documentary’s framing of his career decline, calling it a false narrative. His explanation for stepping back from Hollywood is far simpler. “All I wanted to do was buy my mother a beautiful house and pretty dresses. I done that in the 80s, so the game was over. I don’t chase the dollar. I never did.”
He reserved particular frustration for the film’s inclusion of his former agent Peter Young, whom Mr. T says he sued after discovering Young was allegedly putting his name to contracts he knew nothing about. Mr. T had specifically requested that Young not appear in the documentary. Director Scott Weintrob included him anyway. “We told them ‘Don’t put Peter in my doc,’ but he did,” Mr. T said. Young responded to the criticism with a single line: “Please give Mr. T my best, and let him know I forgive him.”
Mr. T also objected to the documentary’s treatment of his role as the Bearded Lady in the 1993 cult comedy Freaked, which Young criticized in the film. Mr. T defended the casting, noting that Brooke Shields, Keanu Reeves and Randy Quaid also appeared in the project. “They had to undercut what I’m about,” he said. “What a joke.”
Netflix and Weintrob declined to comment on Mr. T’s criticism. A Netflix representative was reportedly present during The Guardian interview, at one point pleading with the reporter to change the subject.
Untold Mr. T: I Pity the Fool premieres globally on Netflix September 8.