Lance Armstrong's story is well-known -- the American professional cyclist beat testicular cancer, won his sport's biggest and most grueling race, the Tour de France, a record seven times from 1995-2001. Throughout his title run, there was rampant speculation that Armstrong was using performance enhancing drugs, claims that Armstrong vehemently denied for years. But in 2013, during an interview with Oprah Winfrey, he publicly admitted to doping while he was racing in the pro peloton. He was summarily stripped of his Tour de France titles and given a lifetime ban from the sport. 

Since then, Lance has mostly avoided the spotlight, leaving only speculation as to his side of the story...until now. This weekend, ESPN debuts part 1 of "Lance," a two-part documentary in their acclaimed "30 for "30 series. In it, director Marina Zenovich stitches together footage from her hours of interviews with Lance's former teammates, support staff, friends, and Lance himself, who talks about his rise to fame, his public fall from grace, and how he's processed it all in the time since his public admission.

Today on FilmWeek, KPCC’s John Horn talks to Marina Zenovich about interviewing Lance Armstrong, the relationship they developed throughout their time together, whether her hopes for the film and Lance’s were the same, and what she learned about him through the process.

With contributions from John Horn

Guest:

Marina Zenovich, documentary filmmaker and director of the two-part ESPN “30 for 30” documentary “Lance”; her other directing credits include “Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind,” “Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic” and “Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out”; she tweets