Revisiting This Is Us 10 Years On
As we come up on the 13th Anniversary of One Direction, I thought I’d hit the rewind button and bring you back to the days of peak 1D Mania.
Unless you were living under a rock back in 2013, then you must have heard and witnessed the buzz surrounding One Direction’s documentary, “This Is Us.” Directioners around the world counted down the days, and stayed up all night to watch the live stream for the World Premiere of the film. I myself saw the film three of four times in the cinema, and countless more at home. As fans, we were all excited to get an inside look into life on the road and to get to know them even more than we already did. Or so we thought.
When One Direction was formed back in 2010, no one, not even the guys expected what was to come over the next five years. After coming in third on X-Factor UK, their lives changed seemingly overnight. We as fans looked at their lives and thought that they were living the dream. And while that may have been true to some degree, as we know, following Liam’s explosive comments and Zayn’s recent feature on Call Her Daddy podcast, everything comes at a price. After rewatching the movie, and revisiting interviews that the guys have done after embarking on their solo journeys, I’ve realised that it wasn’t as glamorous or fun as it was perhaps portrayed. This time, it was as if the rose-coloured glasses came off and I found out for the first time, what really happened.
Throughout the movie, the guys briefly mentioned how hard it sometimes was to keep up with their gruelling schedules. They showed rehearsals for each of the numerous shows they did, but what they didn’t show was that they would not only do one show a day, they would do a matinee show and then have maybe a few hours before having to turn around and do it all over again. During the Take Me Home Tour, they were recording their third album Midnight Memories. So after they would do a show, they would immediately get off stage, get on the bus and travel to the next location. As depicted in the film, Zayn was woken up 10 minutes after falling asleep to record snippets for the new record, and it wasn’t odd to see the boys sleeping in untraditional places (airport floors, cars etc..) Being on tour for eight months at a time, with back-to-back shows and flying from country to country meant that they really didn’t have time to explore the cities they were in. As we saw in the film, even when did get a spare moment to go out into the world, they would be surrounded by fans to the point where they would get stuck inside a shoe store whilst having crowds of fans right outside the door.
Liam once spoke in an interview about an occasion in their hotel, where they were wanting to go out for something as simple as a coffee, but when they looked outside the window, there were thousands of screaming fans, so they were basically stuck in their hotel. Imagine travelling to many countries and barely being able to see them. That was sadly their reality.
Hearing about how much their families were missing them was probably one of the harder moments of the film. As a normal eighteen/nineteen-year-old, you’re often away at university or simply finding your place in the world for yourself, but you do regularly still get to see your family. But being in the band, as the film highlighted again, they were lucky to get a few days off and see their families for the Holidays. Watching Louis and Liam’s mums get emotional about how long they were away even got me a bit teary-eyed. Even Niall and Harry’s parents mentioned how they should be showing them the world and teaching them things about life. Being thrown into the spotlight so young, you’re not really taught about how to handle it all. There’s no guidebook on what to do when you’re part of the biggest boyband on the planet.
Like every job, it’s going to have its highs and lows. Harry even mentioned during the film that you’re not always enjoying it no matter how much success you have. Watching it back, now, ten years on since its release, I can’t imagine having the stresses of not only putting on a great show every night, or even making a good record, but making it seem to fans that you are enjoying the entire experience, even when you’re having a hard time. I can only imagine what that would do to your mental health. And that is something we’ve come to learn more about in the aftermath of the documentary.
But it isn’t all doom and gloom. What I really loved about this film is when they brought us back to each of their hometowns. As fans at that time, we knew a little bit about their families and where they came from, but we didn’t really know all that much. Some of my favourite bits from that part of the film were when Liam was talking about when he would scare himself with there being a cutout of him in his room, and when Harry took us back to the now infamous bakery that he worked in when he was younger. One of the funnier parts of the film was when Niall disguised himself as one of the security guards at one of the venues and fans had no idea. Every time I watch this, I tell myself that I would be able to tell that it was him. I have wondered for the last 10 years, what some of the reactions of those fans were when they saw the film, realising that they were talking to him.
It’s crazy that we are coming up on 13 years of One Direction but also nearly 10 years of this movie. I can remember it like it was yesterday; buying my ticket and entering a theatre filled with 1D fans singing along and meeting in person, some for the very first time. I still have my ticket stub and I even kept the 3D glasses, just as a keepsake from the simpler days of fandom. I love this movie and it will always have a special place in my heart. I definitely have a different take on everything that happened from when I was 20 and first watched it, to now being 30 and seeing it in an entirely new light. But there’s something quite healing in it too. And for that, I am grateful.
