The Andy Warhol Diaries (2022) Biography Documentary (6 x episodes: 6h 35m)

An American documentary streaming television limited series from executive producer Ryan Murphy, based on the 1989 non-fiction book of the same name by Andy Warhol, as edited by Pat Hackett.

The series features the famed pop artist narrating his own diary entries through the employment of AI (voiced by Bill Irwin then morphed using Resemble AI). Written and directed by Andrew Rossi, the series premiered on Netflix on March 9, 2022, consisting of six episodes.

Synopsis 1

Warhol began dictating diary entries via phone in 1976, taking stock of his life in great detail. Longtime friend and collaborator Pat Hackett maintained the diary for eleven years and reflects on the life of the artist. The series traces Warhol's relationships with interior designer Jed Johnson, Paramount Pictures executive Jon Gould, and fellow artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Synopsis 2

From executive producer Ryan Murphy and director Andrew Rossi, this breathtakingly expansive, six-part portrait of a legend chronicles the remarkable life of Andy Warhol from the intimate vantage point offered by the artist’s own posthumously published diaries. Beginning with his childhood in Pittsburgh, the series traces Warhol’s almost unbelievably diverse journey fluidly moving between mediums and through eras as an artist —both revered and reviled — director, publisher, TV producer, scene maker, celebrity and much more.

While he was a larger than life figure, Warhol was intensely private regarding his personal life. This series truly reveals much about the very complex man through his own words — often in his own voice through the use of cutting-edge AI techniques— and those who worked, created, and played alongside him from the subversive to the mainstream, from John Waters to Rob Lowe. Executive produced by Murphy, Dan Braun, Josh Braun, Stacey Reiss, Stanley Buchthal and directed by Rossi, Andy Warhol Diaries deftly validates Warhol’s belief that the idea is not to live forever but to create art that will.

Others interviewed for the series include:

Bob Colacello, Christopher Makos, Rob Lowe, Jerry Hall, Mariel Hemingway, Tony Shafrazi, Mary Boone, Vincent Fremont, Shelly Dunn Fremont, Jamie Wyeth, Glenn Ligon, Larry Gagosian, José Carlos Diaz, David LaChapelle, Wilfredo Rosado, Peter Wise, Donna De Salvo, Jay Johnson, Kenny Scharf, Alan Wanzenberg, Michael Chow, Patrick Moore, John Waters, Greg Tate, Julian Schnabel, Marc Balet, Lee Quinones, Donald Warhola, Futura 2000, Daniela Morera, Debbie Harry, Paige Powell, John Reinhold, Gigi Williams, Jay Gould, Jeffrey Deitch, Jessica Beck, Cornelia Guest, Madelyn Kaye, Lisa Birnbach, Fab 5 Freddy, R. Couri Hay, Benjamin Liu, Lucy Sante, Tama Janowitz, Katy Dobbs, Whit Stillman, and Jane Holzer.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the series holds an approval rating of 96% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Employing some risky stylistic flourishes that Andy Warhol himself might have approved of, these Diaries are a revelatory glimpse into the inner life of a purposefully unknowable artist." On Metacritic, the series has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".

Jack Seale of The Guardian described the series as "a startling biopic told with the artist's own words". Daniel D'Addario of Variety wrote that "the series both summons Warhol's affectless voice and insists on finding the intellect and emotion behind the coolly evaluating gaze".

Ep 1 — Smoke Signals

Netflix - March 9, 2022 - 56m

Art offers an opening for expression and reinvention as Andy rises from grim Pittsburgh origins to become an innovative force in the New York art world.

Ep 2 — Shadows: Andy & Jed

Netflix - March 9, 2022 - 53m

Andy embraces his role as a portrait painter for the rich and famous. But discontent — and disco-era hedonism — tears apart his life with Jed Johnson.

Ep 3 — A Double Life: Andy & Jon

Netflix - March 9, 2022 - 72m

Fantasy propels Andy into the world of modeling and TV — and a relationship with the closeted Jon Gould — leading to explorations of drag and identity.

Ep 4 — Collab: Andy & Basquiat

Netflix - March 9, 2022 - 74m

The '80s take off, and graffiti artists inspired by pop art energize New York. Andy forms a close, fruitful friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Ep 5 — 15 Minutes

Netflix - March 9, 2022 - 65m

Andy edges into the mainstream via "Saturday Night Live" and "The Love Boat" while a collaboration deals a blow to his connection with Jean-Michel.

Ep 6 — Loving the Alien

Netflix - March 9, 2022 - 78m

As HIV/AIDS hits NYC hard, Andy accepts a commission honoring "The Last Supper." The series takes on new resonance when he dies soon after the opening.

Original Language: English

Release Date: March 9, 2022 (internet)

Runtime: 6h 35m (395 min) (6 episodes)

Type: Limited Series

Director: Andrew Rossi

Network: Netflix

Release year: 2022

Genre: Culture & Arts, Documentary, Special Interest, Biography, LGBTQ+

Composer: Brad Oberhofer

Editor: Steven Ross

Narrated by: Bill Irwin, using Resemble AI to simulate Andy Warhol's voice

Opening theme: Nature Boy by Nat King Cole

Producer: Maya E. Rudolph

Production companies: Abstract; Dakota Group, Ltd; Submarine Deluxe

Synopsis: After he is shot in 1968, the late artist begins documenting his life and feelings to shed light on the secrets behind his persona. Those diaries, and this docuseries, take a peek behind his persona.

Trivia: A voice cloning technology called "Resemble AI" was used to recreate Andy Warhol's voice. Director Andrew Rossi explained that it stemmed from Warhol's desire to be emotionless like a machine.

"No One Will Ever Know The Real Andy Warhol"

"This was a binge watch for me as the 70's & 80's was my time in NYC living in an illegal loft before Soho became the in place for the BBQ crowd, I don't mean barbeque. I knew most of the people that hung out with Warhol and Basquiat and met both of them many times during the disco, drugs, drinks era."

"I spent most of my salary each month buying art from both of them when Basquiat was selling signed drawings on postcards for $25 and Warhol who couldn't give away his Campbell soup can paintings away at the The Odeon, which is celebrating their 42nd anniversary this year."

"Yes I had great insight at that time of what would be one day and now smile every time I see the prices that both of these artists command at auction. The documentary by Ryan Murphy focuses more on Warhol's lonely life as a closeted gay man looking for love and his obsession with beautiful Waspy men and death. The interviews with his inner circle that are still alive was insightful but as my title says no one will ever know the real Andy Warhol."

(By Daniel D'Addario - Mar 8, 2022 - variety.com)

In the new documentary series “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” the late pop artist’s re-created voice sounds eerie and uncanny — human but not. It’s aesthetically jarring, and a fitting tribute.

Director Andrew Rossi, with the permission of Warhol’s estate, used an artificial-intelligence program to reproduce his speaking voice, so that “Warhol” can read aloud from the diaries he kept. The result is a flat, almost robotic recapitulation of observations and events, narrating a vivid stream of footage from his life and career without emotion or intonation. “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” executive produced by Ryan Murphy, builds, over six well-structured episodes, a sense of its subject as intelligent, but alienated from his feelings and even from his own talent.

Warhol reigned in a 1970s and ’80s milieu in which all kinds of personalities rubbed up against each other and the divisions between high and low culture were collapsing. His celebrity portraits and his Interview magazine both anticipated and pushed along this shift — one that also was being accelerated by the omnipresence of television and by the Hollywood star who moved into the White House in 1981. (In one compelling vignette, Warhol meets Nancy Reagan in Washington.)

But as he surfed the waves of a changing society, Warhol was subject, too, to its prejudices and its tragedies: His rivalry with rising Black superstar Jean-Michel Basquiat, for instance, rippled with racial and generational tensions to which Warhol was blind. And his romantic relationships with men were stunted by secrecy. Even in his diary, he wrote about longtime love Jon Gould, a Paramount executive, in cryptic and coded ways. Gould eventually died of what appeared to be AIDS, though he denied it to the end. By the time of his death, we have come to know this figure intimately, and to understand why his loss may have pushed Warhol deeper into nihilism.

Our image of the artist is that of self-contained genius — a hermit in his Factory, redefining the concept of stardom from a chilly remove. The achievement of “The Andy Warhol Diaries” is to clarify him through his relationships: to Gould and another romantic partner, to Basquiat and to his collaborators. The docu-series is at its best when relying on the testimony of those who knew and worked with Warhol — among them Pat Hackett, who edited his discursive journals, and Bob Colacello, a key contributor at Interview. They’re admirably willing to move past simple nostalgia and to address the complications within the man they knew.

“The Andy Warhol Diaries” has a running time that may limit its audience to die-hards, and it can get vague — testimonies from the likes of Rob Lowe and Mariel Hemingway about how Warhol shifted culture can seem extraneous. In the main, though, the series both summons Warhol’s affectless voice and insists on finding the intellect and emotion behind the coolly evaluating gaze.