Kate del Castillo shares her side of the controversial El Chapo meeting.
Today marks the launch of Netflix’s latest documentary, The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate del Castillo Story. The documentary recounts the events leading to Mexican actress, Kate del Castillo and Hollywood actor Sean Penn’s headline-making interactions with the world’s most famous drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera (aka El Chapo).
Pop culture’s endless infatuation with Scarface, Breaking Bad, and Narcos shows that Americans can’t get enough stories about drug lords. And unlike Walter White, El Chapo’s tale isn’t a work of fiction. The story behind El Chapo’s rise to almost mythical stature sounds as though it were lifted from a Hollywood script. He went from selling oranges on the side of the road as a child to amassing a billion dollar fortune and boasting, “I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks, and boats.” Any documentary based on El Chapo’s life is guaranteed to draw in viewers but a recent controversy involving Sean Penn is bringing the mainstream media spotlight down on The Day I Met El Chapo.
Sean Penn has lawyered up in a bid to prevent Netflix from releasing The Day I Met El Chapo. According to the New York Times, Penn’s lawyers issued a letter to Netflix stating it is, “hereby on notice that blood will be on their hands if this film causes bodily harm.” The dispute arises from how the film allegedly depicts the details relating to the 2015 meeting between Penn and El Chapo. According to the Times,
Mr. Penn is apparently upset because he believes the documentary implies that he helped the authorities at the Department of Justice in their capture of El Chapo.
Penn’s camp is claiming the documentary paints the actor in a negative light (potentially snitching on El Chapo) in order to drum up publicity for the documentary. Most auspiciously, El Chapo who had previously evaded authorities, was captured the day after Penn’s article about their meeting was published in Rolling Stone.
Netflix released a statement regarding Penn’s discontent over the documentary’s content.
Penn was given the opportunity on multiple occasions to participate in ‘The Day I Met El Chapo’ and did not do so. The events surrounding the now-infamous meeting have been well covered, including by Penn himself in Rolling Stone and his many public comments since. The only new ground we’re breaking with this series is to give Kate a chance to finally tell her side of this stranger-than-fiction story.
The Day I Met El Chapo is officially live on Netflix and hopefully Penn’s concerns are unwarranted. Nobody wants to see one of America’s finest actors disappear into a witness protection program.
Here’s The Day I Met El Chapo: The Kate Del Castillo Story synopsis:
The Day I Met El Chapo is the biographical account of Mexican actress, Kate del Castillo. The three-part series tells Kate’s side of the story using never-before-seen footage and exclusive details of what led to the infamous meeting between one of the world’s most notorious drug lords, a Hollywood star and one of Mexico’s most famous television actresses.
Related Topics: Netflix, streaming
