I went to her house and it was one of those life-imitating-art moments where your mouth drops.
Her story was so unbelievable; this telenovela superstar living the life of a telenovela role.
She was giving me the details and raw emotion and the pain and the tears and it was real.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images; Alexander Tamargo/Getty Images
I said, Can you give me this [on camera]?
Will you talk this way?
Will you be willing to bare it all in this story?
But there were also several other aspects I wanted to get into.
How does a telenovela superstar and El Chapo cross paths?
What would ever lead to someone like Kate to have the balls to do what she did?
And why would someone like El Chapo ever allow someone like Kate into his life?
From the outset, Sean Penns reaction had to be looming in your mind.
I want to hear from him.
To Kates credit, she never said, You cant do that.
So I went to him after we shot almost everything.
And how did that go?Im going to give you details we havent told anybody.
We tried several attempts to get Sean and have him participate.
First, I asked Netflix to reach out to his agents.
There were several calls made over several weeks.
I also called his house and I spoke to his assistant and I gave all the details.
I never got a single response.
We got nothing back from him.
And I said, He can see it on Oct. 20 when it comes out.
On Netflix, making a change is an 8-to-12-week process.
So Sean went and he watched it with his lawyer.
And thats when it all started.
Penn hasstrongly deniedthis through his lawyer, who called claims Penn or anyone on his behalf alerted D.O.J.
to the trip is a complete fabrication and baldfaced lie.
What do you think is true?I dont know whats true.
I know whats in the doc.
or anyone else in the United States government prior to going down there.
His attorney would have told someone at the United States government.
Then the United States government would have told somebody in the Mexican government.
Thats different than saying Sean Penn was in cahoots with the D.O.J.
That was their big concern.
But really what I think is Sean was concerned he was going to look like a jerk.
If Sean Penn is in any harms way at all, it wouldnt be because of this documentary.
It would be his own actions.
Penns a pretty powerful figure in Hollywood.
Kate del Castillo is an executive producer on the documentary and reportedly had a close relationship with Guzman.
She recentlyclaimed in an interviewto have had sex with Penn.
A producer of a documentary having sex with their movies subject isnt exactly the journalistic norm.
So theres misinformation out there Kate did not have sex with Sean while working on the documentary.
They havent talked since that piece came out.
And thats a piece that nobody knew; it was revealed in the documentary.
Remember Kate believed that his reason was to make a movie.
She secured El Chapos life rights.
Kates reasons for bringing Sean was to add credibility to the film project.
What made Sean want to write an article forRolling Stoneand be the guy to do this with El Chapo …
I cannot fathom that idea.
The interview caused alot of controversyand we had to fight a subpoena to keep the source protected.
Its an amazing question to think about.
And I dont know what Sean was thinking or his agenda.
If she had known that in advance it would have been a very different set of circumstances.
I certainly wanted to ask Sean: What were you thinking and why?
Why do you think he never told her?
Was it because he didnt trust her, even though they were having this relationship?I dont know.
He put them all in potentially dangerous situations.
I dont know why Sean didnt tell her in advance.
How much were they freaking out?They werent freaking out.
Im going to call it a controlled chaos.
I am really proud of them.
Were their nerves on edge, as I said?
They were getting pressure from a lot of sources.
We were taking what Sean was saying very seriously.
The easy thing to do would have been to hit the brakes and regroup.
Ultimately I think Sean was trying to control the creative on a series he didnt want out there.
Has there been any reaction from El Chapos camp?We havent heard from him.
But his son, Ivan tweeted over the weekend.
What about anything new from Penns camp since the documentary came out?Not yet.
Im not even sure hed seen the documentary yet.
Well see if they come back with anything new.
Wed like to think its gone away.
El Chapo originally gave his story rights to Kate for a movie.
Will that project get made?She says she still has those rights and wants to pursue that project.
Shes in a very male-dominated world.
The timing is fortuitous for her story coming out while theres this very tragic story with Harvey Weinstein.
Im proud to see that.
Ernest Macias contributed to this report; This interview was edited for length and clarity.
