What higher method to elevate the voice of one of the finest athletes of our time than with the highly effective voice of one of the most revered actors of our time?
Netflix does simply that in a brand new teaser for an upcoming documentary series about Simone Biles, who’s the most decorated gymnast in history, by tapping Viola Davis to present narration. As if that isn’t epic sufficient, Davis’ narration options strains from an influential voice in the literary world: the late Maya Angelou.
In “Simone Biles Rising,” which premieres July 17 on the streaming platform, Biles displays on the struggles she skilled throughout the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, as she additionally appears to be like forward to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Davis reads an excerpt from Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” which can be one of Biles’ favourite poems, in the poignant teaser.
“Did you want to see me broken?” Davis’ voice begins, over a clip of Biles in white athletic gear staring straight into the digital camera.
“Bowed head and lowered eyes/ Shoulders fallen down like teardrops, weakened by my soulful cries,” she continues whereas a clip shows of Biles at the Tokyo Games, touchdown after an obvious bout of “the twisties,” earlier than flashing to different photographs of the gymnast at work, and, lastly, shedding tears.
Biles withdrew from individual and team gymnastics events in Tokyo after she skilled the twisties, which is a phenomenon that happens when gymnasts lose a way of the place they’re and the way they will land whereas in the air. Afterward, she was trustworthy about her mental health struggles, which she will additionally tackle in the docuseries.
“Just like moons and like suns/ With the certainty of tides,” Davis says over footage of Biles open air.
“Just like hopes springing high/ Still, I rise,” she concludes as video rolls of Biles throughout happier occasions, like on her wedding ceremony day with husband Jonathan Owens and on the prime of the podium.
The teaser closes with footage of Biles nailing strikes in the health club, one thing gymnastics followers lately noticed her do a number of weeks in the past when she made the Olympic team.
Davis has additionally beforehand expressed her help for Biles, sharing a message to the gymnast on her Instagram page amid the Tokyo Olympics.
“Always a champion. Always a gamechanger, a rule breaker. Always a consummate teammate…..a bastion of support….You have shifted the sport and reminded us what it means to be HUMAN…and because of all this…you will be remembered,” the actor wrote partly in July 2021.
The ultimate phrases in the trailer are particularly vital to Biles.
She has a tattoo on her collarbone with the phrases “and still I rise.”
In one other clip from the documentary collection, Biles explains what the tattoo means to her, saying it’s “perfect” as a result of it’s the “epitome” of her profession and life story since she at all times rises to the event.
Biles additionally has a number of different tattoos, together with the Olympic rings, which she bought after the 2016 Rio Olympics.
