Aaron Rodgers Is ‘a Very Difficult Person to Understand,’ Netflix Docuseries Makers Concluded (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Aaron Rodgers.Photo:John Lamparski/Getty Images

Aaron Rodgers attends as Aaron Rodgers & Zenith unveil his limited edition design at the Magic Room

John Lamparski/Getty Images

After spending a year filming and interviewingAaron Rodgers, the documentarians behindhis new Netflix docuseriesconcluded that he’s just what their title suggests: an enigma.

Gotham Chopra and Liam Hughes, the co-directors behindNetflix’s new three-partAaron Rodgers: Enigmadocuseriesspoke with PEOPLE this week about their experience spending time with the four-time NFL MVP and documenting his recovery from a ruptured Achilles tendon, suffered on the fourth play of the 2023 season.

“I think we probably know him better than most with all the time we’ve spent with him and all the interviews, but if you ask me, like, do I really know Aaron? I wouldn’t say I would. I don’t think so,” Chopra tells PEOPLE. “I mean, not to get too esoteric, but does Aaron fully know himself? I don’t think he would say yes. I think it’s one of the things that distinguishes him from a lot of other athletes and people. He’s still very much on a journey.”

PEOPLE had an advanced look at the episodes, which also explores the 41-year-old quarterback’s career and controversies off the field. The series began streaming on Tuesday, Dec. 17.

Aaron Rodgers.Chance Yeh/WireImage

Aaron Rodgers attends as Aaron Rodgers & Zenith unveil his limited edition design at the Magic Room

Chance Yeh/WireImage

Chopra recruited Hughes, his frequent collaborator, to join him on the year-long project after retired seven-time Super Bowl championTom Brady— whom Chopra documented forESPN’sMan In the Arena: Tom Bradyseries— put him in contact with Rodgers.

Hughes called the project a “no brainer” for them, given Rodgers’ status as one of the best quarterbacks of all time coupled with his celebrity and eccentric personality off the field. Despite preconceived notions through what they’ve read or had seen about Rodgers in the past, Hughes and Chopra vowed to approach the project “with an open heart and a curious mind.”

“I think for me, the interesting thing was I was just so surprised early on when I met Aaron and started to spend time with him, like some of those preconceived notions I had, most of them were kind of blown up pretty quickly for me,” Hughes tells PEOPLE. “I think that made it easier to approach him with an open heart and a curious mind, because I was like, ‘Wait a second, this isn’t really the guy that I’ve come to know through the media,’ if you will. Now that I’m coming to know him in person with an actual human connection, I was just very surprised, and I think that made it pretty easy, in some ways, to put all those preconceived notions aside and just really dig in and be curious and try to understand him, because he’s a very difficult person to understand.”

Aaron Rodgers.John Lamparski/Getty

Aaron Rodgers attends as Aaron Rodgers & Zenith unveil his limited edition design at the Magic Room at the LVMH Tower on October 30, 2023 in New York City.

John Lamparski/Getty

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“Aaron has been very consistent about the fact that there are certain things in his private life that he doesn’t want to discuss publicly,” Chopra says, noting that Rodgers did, to an extent, “open up quite a lot about some of those topics — his family maybe being the most prominent.”“Once he was in [on the documentary], he was in,” Chopra adds. “And he was open and vulnerable.”

All episodes ofAaron Rodgers: Engimaare now streaming on Netflix.

source: people.com