SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers from “Polo” now streaming on Netflix.
Prince Harry and Meghan’s latest effort for Netflix is “Polo,” a five-part docuseries following the sport’s U.S. Open, which took place in Wellington, FL earlier this year, and is co-produced by their prod-co Archewell.
While the Duke and Duchess of Sussex hardly feature in the series – bar an episode that focuses on a charity polo game for Harry’s non-profit Sentebale – there is plenty of drama thanks to a showdown between polo icon Adolfo Cambiaso and his son Poroto, team owner Bob Jornayvaz suffering a life-changing accident mid-play and a babyshower that goes very wrong.
For showrunner Miloš Balać (“Welcome to Wrexham”) – as well as executive producers Harry and Meghan — the aim was to overlay the human storylines while introducing a new audience to one of the world’s oldest and most dangerous sports (Harry’s father, King Charles, once almost died in the middle of a polo match after falling from his horse and swallowing his tongue).
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Ahead of the show dropping on Netflix, Balać sat with Variety to talk about Prince Harry’s input in the series, why he decided to cut away from the moment of Jornayvaz’s accident and whether audiences can look forward to a Season 2.
What was your knowledge of polo before working on this docuseries?
Zero. I mean, “pretty people with horses” was what I thought it was. My favorite part of my job is coming into worlds that are unknown to me and discovering them and just immersing myself. So we worked in development for a few months, and then got the green light and I was off to Wellington, Florida for the U.S. season of polo.
Prince Harry is a seasoned polo player and even briefly features in the series. How involved was he in shaping it?
He was involved, I’d say, in a pretty incredible way, in that he, from the start, definitely had a vision. This is a world that he knows well that I knew nothing of. And I think that was a good collaboration in terms of someone who really knows every tiny, minute detail versus someone who’s coming as, like, the blind audience, and finding a way to meet in the middle where it’s going to cater to the world of polo that already knows it, and then bring in a slew of new fans, which is obviously our main goal. So he was very involved from the start in terms of suggesting where we might want to look for storylines. And then in the edit he was incredibly helpful. I really never actually worked with an executive producer in that sense where he had such an expertise for the sport that he could really offer excellent notes about how we were editing the game play, how to portray certain moments. And even while we were in production, he was giving so many ideas of like, “Hey, you know what I love so much about polo is that feeling when you’re on the horse and you just feel the speed and you feel the excitement and you feel the roar.” So we kept all of that in mind in terms of trying to think of, “How can we then capture that and communicate that appropriately?” And I hope we were able to do that a bit in the series.
Was there any discussion about having him feature more in the show?
Honestly, not really, because it just wasn’t the premise of the series. From the start, the premise was always that we would be covering the U.S. Open of polo, capturing the top athletes in this world. It was just a great happenstance that the Sentebale charity game was happening in Wellington, Florida this year. That truly was by chance. So we were able to naturally integrate him into our storyline, which I think works really beautifully.
How did you choose which polo players and storylines you were going to focus on in the series?
I would say that revealed itself over the course of that U.S. Open season. Obviously, it was so thrilling that the Cambiaso storyline played out the way it did. To have the father and son versus each other all the way down to the final was our dream scenario and it really happened. We knew it was going to be five episodes, which really isn’t that much space at the end of the day, so we knew we had to be selective in who we’d focus on. And the goal was always to make this feel accessible, make this feel like a world that, even if you don’t know anything about polo, the whole idea is to break down this stereotype that it’s for exclusively the rich and famous and extremely beautiful, wealthy, opera society. I think we also can’t deny that obviously there are reasons why it’s associated with that — it is an expensive sport in so many ways — but living there in Florida and witnessing it, I can honestly say that it is much more accessible. I mean, on off days you just show up, pull up with your pickup truck, and you’re watching the game with your dog and all that.
Why did you decide not to show the moment of Bob Jornayvaz’s accident?
That was a matter of protecting Bob’s privacy. And I think there’s even something more powerful in the storytelling where you don’t have to witness something brutal to understand how horrible it might be. I was there in person and it really was a horrible thing to witness so I wouldn’t want to traumatize an audience with that. But also, I think you can fill in the blanks and that it really was out of respect to his family. They didn’t even necessarily request that of us, his kids obviously spoke with me after it happened, they were willing to share his story with us. We’re all very grateful that he’s still with us, still fighting to get back to where he once was and recovering. But it really shows the intensity of the sport, and the fact that every time any polo player you speak to, anytime they get on a horse, they know what they’re signing up to do, the dangers that their job involves. And I think that is so powerful to show the passion. I’m not going to risk my life like that but they’re willing to because of their love of this game, the love of these animals. And I think that, in and of itself, is a very powerful message.
It’s unusual to have semi-professional (and also older) players take part alongside professional athletes in their prime in what is quite a dangerous sport simply because they own the team, as is the case in polo. If there’s a second season is that something you might interrogate a bit more?
I think that’s a very interesting question. It’s really a question best suited for the U.S. PA [Polo Association] because they’re the ones that set the parameters around all that. What I will say, knowing much more about the sport than I originally did, is the referees really do an amazing job. Obviously, accidents happen in the blink of an eye, but I would say that the system felt like the precautions are there and the awareness is there to mitigate exactly what you’re describing. And I can say the other patrons that we feature and Bob himself, these are people that they’re putting time in in the gym, they’re putting time in with trainers, they’re riding their horses. But in a potential Season 2 I do think we could interrogate more what the patron figure is as a whole. But here our whole goal was to just introduce it as a concept.
One of the themes of the show is occasionally frictional father-son relationships: there’s the Cambiasos, the Duttas and obviously (although not features in the series) Prince Harry’s relationship with his father is well-known as well. How much did you lean into that as the showrunner and did you have discussions with the exec producers about it?
Again, those storylines presented themselves so completely naturally that it was unavoidable, the story points to work around and build narratives around.
What I will say about the EPs, from Prince Harry and from the Duchess, from Meghan, the point was always that polo feels like one big family in so many ways. And it’s true. I mean, when you’re there, everyone knows each other around the field, and many are actual relatives, and then others are just by virtue of being in the same community. But we wanted the idea of family to come across throughout this series in multiple ways. So obviously, the father-son duo, Louie and Pam is the husband and wife. We feature Bob’s kids, and the way that the Cambiasos really see Bob as just another member of their family. So that was really what was behind that. And then I think, as a viewer, as a writer, as a director myself, I would hope most people have some parental relationship that they can find a way to relate to this, whether it’s like, “Oh, that’s just like my dad” or like, “Oh, my God, that’s nothing like my dad.” But you have a reaction to it. That was the hope,
What are the discussions at the moment about a Season 2?
I think they’re definitely open to it. You’ll have to ask Netflix about their plans in that regard. But we made the show with a lot of love, and there’s plenty of stories left in the world of polo to keep it going.
This interview has been edited and condensed for space and clarity.