Bob Ross—the artist known for his calm voice, poofy hair and unflappable demeanor—spent 31 seasons gently encouraging at-home artists to pick up their palettes to paint serene landscapes and “happy little trees.”
Actor Melissa McCarthy and her husband, filmmaker Ben Falcone, were big fans of Ross and decided to produce a documentary about his life. But as they began working on the project with filmmakers Joshua Rofé and Steven Berger, they quickly realized their subject—and the legacy he left behind—was more complex than they knew.
From the outset, the filmmakers found that very few people were willing to speak with them about Ross, for fear of litigation by the owners of his estate. McCarthy says Rofé and Berger told her they had rarely encountered such hesitancy and refusal.
“That was when we sort of figured out, oh, boy, this might be a little different than what we thought it was going to be,” Falcone says.
“When someone is an artist, no matter what their medium is … there’s a business behind it,” McCarthy says. “And I would venture to guess that business is always much more complicated than the personality that they lead with.”
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