Latest / Cyrus Webb's tracks / Director Dani Sloane talks true crime, new docu-series TAKEN: Natalie Holloway

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Director Dani Sloane talks true crime, new docu-series TAKEN: Natalie Holloway · Cyrus Webb's tracks

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Conversations Live. I'm your host,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Cyrus Webb. Glad you all could join us once again.
• 0:04
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  Speaker 1: you all being with us at WYED 94.1 FM and WYEDonline.com.
• 0:12
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• 0:14
  Speaker 1: as tuning in through our podcast at iHeartRadio and Amazon Music,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we're glad you all could be with us as well.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: For those of you who follow True Crime, our next
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: guest is someone you may have heard of. We're excited
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: to welcome him. producer and director Danny Sloan to our
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: broadcast today. She's getting ready to release a new series
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: on Netflix called Taking Natalie Holloway. We know that Natalie
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Holloway is someone who captured the world's attention. Even after
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: 20 years, her story is still one that people are
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: interested in. And that's why this docuseries is so fascinating.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: It not only lets you know Natalie's story, but also
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: takes you into her mother Beth's journey of being able
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to not only talk about her daughter, but also share
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: which she wants you all to know about her life
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  Speaker 1: and where things stand today. Dani's going to talk to
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  Speaker 1: us about this journey for her and what she hopes
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  Speaker 1: to be able to take away from the series. Dani,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: thank you again for stopping by. I really appreciate it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Cyrus. I'm happy to be here.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Well, Dani, I appreciate that. You know, I first heard
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: about you last year because of Trophy Wife, and so
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  Speaker 1: it was so interesting to me when I found out
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  Speaker 1: about this new series with Natalie Holloway coming to Netflix.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: You know, as I mentioned, it's been over 20 years, Dani.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Does it surprise you that there is still such interest
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: in Natalie Holloway's story and what happened to her.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: First of all, thank you so much for watching Trophy Wave. Yeah,
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, look, these cases that were so kind of
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  Speaker 2: monoculture in the zeitgeist, seminal, I think, you know, it's
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: not surprising to me that the interest kind of remains,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: especially in this one, because... You know, I think a
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: lot of people know disparate kind of information, right? Maybe
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: they've heard of Beth Holloway. Maybe they've seen, you know,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Natalie's iconic senior portrait that was plastered everywhere. Maybe they've
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: heard Joran van der Sloot's name. But I don't know
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: that most people really know the full scope of how
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: it began, what really happened, and how it ended. So
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: I think, you know, 20 years later, there's so many
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: questions that remain. And, you know, that's what we really
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: aim to do in the series is to definitively.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Answer them all. And I think that's what's so great
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  Speaker 1: about the way you're going to be able to lay
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: this out, Danny. So, Danny, I have to ask you
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: for yourself. I mean, I know, again, from watching Trophy
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Wife and even in prepping for this segment, I know
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that true crime is something that even from an early
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: age was something that you have been intrigued with. Was
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: this a difficult case for you to be able to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: get into, to be able to get into not only
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: how intricate the story is, but also how much emotion
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: is around it?
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: It's always difficult. I think, you know, with doing this
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: for as long as I have, I'm very lucky that
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: I work with an excellent team, and we really, you know,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: put the care and the effort into making sure that,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: you know, not only are we handling these cases and
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the telling of them with care and sensitivity, but also that, like,
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: you know, we're handling it for ourselves with sensitivity and care.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I have a son, many members on my team have
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: kids of different ages, and You know, it's never easy, especially,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, you'll see the first couple minutes of the series,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: we have this home video footage of Natalie. And for me,
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  Speaker 2: every time I see it, it just kind of hits
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  Speaker 2: me squarely in the chest just to see this little
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  Speaker 2: girl who, you know, became a young woman and had
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: her life cut short. So it's never easy, but I
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: think it's so important to tell these stories, especially, you know,
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  Speaker 2: in this case, And Beth will say this too, Natalie
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  Speaker 2: really got reduced to a name and a headline, and
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  Speaker 2: it was really important for us to show the full
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  Speaker 2: scope and full picture of who she was and to
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  Speaker 2: give her and her mother that dignity. These are real people,
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  Speaker 2: and something really terrible happened to them, and they're not
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: just names and they're not just headlines.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: That's a great point. When I was prepping for this, Dani,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I watched the trailer that was put out that's on YouTube,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and I'll link it up on the podcast site. And
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: as you mentioned, I mean, being able to see more
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  Speaker 1: of Natalie than just that picture that we've gotten to
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  Speaker 1: know and to think about that you've been able now
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  Speaker 1: to share the stories of individuals who were actually around
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: her during that time. What was that like for you? Because, again,
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: that's something I didn't remember actually hearing much about. But
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: what was it like for you to be able to
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  Speaker 1: have those individuals there to be able to share their
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  Speaker 1: stories as well about what happened during that time?
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  Speaker 2: It just makes it, you know, so much more... multi-dimensional
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: and much more real. You know, this was, of course,
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  Speaker 2: you know, the lens that we tell this story with
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  Speaker 2: is Beth Holloway's, you know, perspective. This was, she was
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: Natalie's mother. She was, you know, the driving force really
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: behind the investigation for 20 years. But when you think
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: about the ripples and the concentric circles of everybody else
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: that's impacted this one night in May of 2005, you know,
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: you think about her friends who, you know, lived through
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: this whole summer not knowing where their friend was, who
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: they went on this trip with. And then, you know,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: they have to go off to college in the fall
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  Speaker 2: and begin to really process and heal as 18-year-old kids.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's so confusing. And then add to that
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  Speaker 2: the layers that, you know, you'll see in episode two
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  Speaker 2: of the way they were implicated and the way that
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: the media narrative really started to, you know, villainize them.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: It's a lot, and you talk to all of these
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  Speaker 2: people 20 years later, and you see this is not
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  Speaker 2: a fleeting thing for them. This has lived in their
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: hearts and their minds for all of these years, and
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: I think for a lot of people there's a catharsis
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: in being able to share the way that they want
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  Speaker 2: to share because you're never going to get the full
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: story in a four-minute news segment or a ten-minute news
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  Speaker 2: segment for an anniversary special. This is really an opportunity
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: for people to talk about how this impacted them, and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: to really see how this rickles all these years later.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: You know, you just said something that is so powerful.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: And I think in the world that we live in today, Danny,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: this is something, unfortunately, that we all can fall into
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  Speaker 1: the trap of. For us as the outsiders, it becomes
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  Speaker 1: a story, it becomes a thing. But I think, especially
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: when I watched that trailer, what I thought about was
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: this is still someone's daughter. This is someone's friend. This
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: is a real life. Is that what you also hope
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: comes from this series, that not only humanizing, again, Natalie,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: but also that at its heart, you know, a mother
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: who wants answers about what happened to her daughter? 100%.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And I think that that's sort of the message any
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: time any of these cases become, you know, national news, right? Like,
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  Speaker 2: this continues to happen. These cases dominate the headlines, and
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: people speculate, and people wonder. But You know, I really
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: hope that the lasting impact of this is that people
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  Speaker 2: can watch this series, truly one of the most iconic
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: cases that really everyone knows, you know, all these years later,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: and say, wow, like, we didn't think about how her
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: mother was, you know, even able to go to sleep
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: at night, and we didn't think about how it was
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: for her friends to go to college, and we didn't
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: think it was, you know, how it was for the
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: rest of her family. And I hope that that sort
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: of compassion and thought, you know, can... kind of go
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  Speaker 2: into thinking about new cases that pop up and thinking
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  Speaker 2: about new victims and new families that are, you know,
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  Speaker 2: sadly traumatized and become part of the news cycle. Because really,
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: I think there's a humanity that just gets lost in
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: the telling of some of these stories. And I really
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: hope that we've been able to bring that back.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Danny, for not only being a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: part of this, but also sharing it with our audience today. Again, everyone,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Director Danny Sloan has been our guest. The series is
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: called Taken, Natalie Holloway. It does stream starting on November
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the 4th on Netflix. So make sure you guys do
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: check it out. And Danny, congratulations to you and the team.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Cyrus. We really appreciate it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: We appreciate the time. And we think your audience are
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: tuning in to another great segment of Conversations Live. Until
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: next time. I'm your host, Cyrus Webb, saying, as always,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: enjoy your day, enjoy your life, enjoy your world. Thank
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: you for being with us here at Conversations Live. Let
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: us go make today amazing. Take care.