LAist: Your film shows how several athletes are inspired by cartoon characters and superheroes. Who is your favorite superhero?

Chris Bell: When I was growing up, my favorite superhero was the hulk because he was massive. I was really into the TV show of the Hulk. I used to love the old TV show of Batman. He was fat and out of shape and he could save the day. It was not the musculature, but the idea of being a hero. I used to idolize Terry Bradshaw, the quarterback for the Steelers. We would go in the backyard and throw the ball around and pretend it was the final seconds of the Super Bowl and I was throwing the winning touchdown. As kids that what would get in our minds, that you have to be a hero.

When did you decide to make this film? What inspired you to start on this journey?

I was trying to get a narrative film off the ground. Alex liked the script and wanted to take in into some studios to try to get it made. While he was doing that I didn't want to sit around doing nothing. First I had the idea to do a documentary on Westside Barbell, which appears in the movie. That's where the strongest guys in the world train. My brother trains there. I had this other idea to do a movie about Gold's Gym. There are so many interesting characters coming and going through that gym. It just sort of evolved from conversations with Alex (Producer and Cinematographer Alexander Buono) and Tamsin (Producer Tamsin Rawady) about why people want to get that strong. Why do people want to look like that? The idea that being the best, whatever it takes, the sacrifices that you have to make. I realized that if were going to do this topic we would have to talk about steroids. It turned into a movie where steroids were the focus. We set out to make a movie about that win at all cost attitude and it turned into an exposé on performance enhancing drugs and how they fit into society.

In the film you talk to your brothers about using steroids. How did they feel when the film came out?

My brothers really wanted to tell their story. They felt that in the media, steroid users were being portrayed as these evil, underground seedy people. My brothers just wanted to say, I've done it, this is the affects it had. This is what happened to me. They wanted to tell their story. They weren't upset in any way. I think they really liked the film. They are very supportive of it. Since the movie came out, both of my brothers ended up going off steroids.

In the film your feature many scenes with Arnold Schwarzenegger. You talk about him being a childhood hero. There is a scene where Gold's Gym has been asked to take down all of his photos. Did you try to interview him?

We tried to set up interviews with him several times. They told me to go get a press pass. We did that when he was trying to get reelected. We went to the Reagan library and we got kicked out by an armed guard who was yelling at us that we couldn't be there. It was kind of crazy. We weren't trying to ambush him. I just had a few questions that I wanted to ask him. I tried to talk to him one-on-one a couple times. His publicist kept saying that his position on steroids was very clear. Actually it's not clear. We have conflicting footage of him from different interviews. We tried to get to the bottom of it with him, but I guess that politically he felt it was not right to talk about it. That's his right, but I think he is the one guy that could step up and make sense of all of this.

What are the reactions since the film has come out? With the politicians or other people you interviewed?

When something comes out that is negative about someone, they pretend it never happened. They think that once they comment on it, it becomes a news story. We haven't heard anything from Henry Waxman's office. We did screen it for congress Tom Davis and the Committee on Oversight. They were interested by the film because it covers many of the themes and ideas that they covered in the steroid hearings. I know that it caused some internal debates, but we haven't heard anything official from any of those people. Some of the people at the WWE have seen it. They like the film because it is honest.

When we were doing the film, we couldn't get the cooperation of any of the major sports organizations. MLB, NFL, USOC, none of them wanted to talk to us. They knew that once they go down that path there could be trouble ahead. We did our research. We knew the right questions to ask. It was tough to get those people to participate. It wasn't just Arnold that didn't want to participate. We asked Hulk Hogan. We asked Jose Canseco. He wanted money. We asked a lot of people.