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July 25, 2021

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An intimate look at Naomi Osaka finding her way

THOSE looking for definitive answers about Naomi Osaka and how she copes with the demands of her career and fame shouldn’t expect to find them in a new Netflix docuseries about the four-time Grand Slam champion.

It’s the tennis star’s unresolved questions that are the heart of “Naomi Osaka,” director-producer Garrett Bradley said of the series that was taped over a two-year period starting with the 2019 US Open. Production concluded in early 2021 before Osaka withdrew from the French Open.

The three-part series that debuted last week is a contemplative, intimate look at a young athlete finding her way. Film from major tournaments, wins and losses, is interwoven with scenes of Osaka’s time with family and her boyfriend, the rapper Cordae; her training and business demands; her reflections on her career, multiracial identity and the death of mentor Kobe Bryant; and her decision to protest police killings of black men and women.

“It was really important for me to not go into the project with an agenda or really even an opinion,” said Bradley, a 2021 Oscar nominee for the documentary “Time.” “I really tried to open myself up to her world and where she was, and tried to understand the sort of essence of who she is.”

As filming progressed, Bradley said, it became clear the series’ foundation would be the conundrums faced not only by Osaka but society at large.

Those inquiries are “connected to value systems and self-definition, and how one can create a more holistic understanding of themselves in any given environment that they find themselves in,” said Bradley, whose fellow producers include LeBron James, under the umbrella of his SpringHill production company.

Osaka, 23, who was not made available for an interview, withdrew from the French Open last May, citing “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the media and revealing that she has suffered long bouts of depression.

She also skipped Wimbledon, with her agent saying she wanted personal time, but is expected to compete in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics for her native Japan.

Osaka was just a few years old when she, her sister and their Japanese mother and Haitian father moved to the United States.

In a Time magazine essay published on July 8, Osaka wrote: “Believe it or not, I am naturally introverted and do not court the spotlight. I always try to push myself to speak up for what I believe to be right, but that often comes at a cost of great anxiety.”

“I do hope that people can relate and understand it’s OK to not be OK, and it’s OK to talk about it. There are people who can help, and there is usually light at the end of any tunnel,” she said, thanking Michelle Obama, Michael Phelps and other public figures for offering support.

The Netflix docuseries includes footage of Osaka and her sister Mari on the court as youngsters, with the tennis star recalling spending at least eight hours a day at practice, adding, “I was just tired.” Mari Osaka, 25, also played professional tennis but said in a social media post in March that she was retiring from the sport because it was “a journey which I didn’t enjoy ultimately.”

The docuseries sketches a portrait of Naomi Osaka as thoughtful and driven to succeed but struggling to cope with her sport’s demands and her future.

At one moment of self-reflection she says, “So what am I if not a good tennis player?”




 

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