To Make a Liza Minnelli Documentary, Director Bruce David Klein Relied on Her Star Quality

Bruce David Klein, an Emmy-nominated director and producer, is known for crafting compelling documentaries that illuminate contemporary cultural history. His previous works include Icahn: The Restless Billionaire, about the enduring business legacy of mogul Carl Icahn, and Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened, Lonny Price’s exploration of the failure of Merrily We Roll Along.

In his latest project, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, Kline turns his focus to the life and legacy of Liza Minnelli. Now playing in cinemas, the film delves into Minnelli’s extraordinary highs, struggles, and her undeniable impact on the entertainment industry. Here, Klein discusses the inspiration behind the project, the challenges of portraying such a multifaceted star, and the choices that shaped the film along the way.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Was Liza into the idea of a documentary from the beginning, or did it take much convincing?
When we first started talking, her management told us that Liza had just found about 25 hours of never-before-seen footage taken of her in the mid-70s, and our jaws dropped. We hit play and were seeing Liza at her height. She was the It-Girl of the time. She was the Taylor Swift. The explosive life force of this woman came through in this footage, and all generations in our office were like “Wow.” We went back to Liza and her team, and we said that this is the lever to get us into what makes Liza, Liza, and they got it immediately. That’s when we agreed to work together.

Instead of doing a full chronological picture of her life, you devote time to each of her mentors.
That’s a big thing for her, giving credit where it’s due. I think she was very pleased to see that we brought out these people who she says helped “invent” her.

From the get-go, we were looking for a way to tell Liza’s story in a way that was very Liza. A cradle-to-grave documentary gets very boring no matter how exciting the person is. In this case, after watching hours and hours of interviews from the ’60s and ’70s, we noticed a whole bunch of times when she would say, “Aznavour invented me” or “Bob Fosse invented me,” which is a very interesting turn of phrase. When we sat down and I interviewed her for the first time, I had a question about Fred Ebb, and she said, “Freddy invented me.”

That’s when the lightbulb went off. After the tragic death of her mother, who is Liza going to become? These mentors that Liza sought out really did help transform her. It wasn’t an accident that they were the likes of Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse and Halston and Charles Aznavour and Kay Thompson, all geniuses in their own way. They took this raw talent that you see on the Ed Sullivan Show in the ’60s and polished it like a jewel. She became her best self.

What was the most surprising thing you learned about her in the process?
I thought a lot about the idea that Liza was born to Hollywood royalty; her mother was one of the greatest performers of the 20^th Century; her father was one of the greatest directors of the 20^th Century. She was born on third base, and in some ways, it was more difficult for her to get from third to home than many other people who travel around all the bases.

When you look at the expectations she had to deal with – Will you ever sing as well as your mother? Will you ever be a great actress that your father could have directed? — there was a real mountain to climb to set herself apart from her parents. In her world, you could make an argument that the concept of privilege was very much a double-edged sword.

Did she or her people give you any kind of parameters of what you could or couldn’t include?
I had final cut. She did not have a say. But to the contrary, there was one moment at the end of a long day of shooting. Liza was sitting on the edge of her bed, and she grabbed my hand and looked at me with those saucer eyes, and she said “Bruce, whatever you do, don’t make me look like I’m phony.”

Both stars and unknown people who I’ve captured in documentaries always want to control the narrative and how they look. They don’t like that their hair was slightly out of place. To hear that from a star of her caliber was really shocking and pretty amazing. It obviously shows a lot of confidence that she has just in herself and her story. The Liza you see in the film is Liza. After all the stuff that she’s been through, she’s very resilient, and I think all of that comes through. Not because of me, because of her.