ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What sparked your interest in making a Beanie Babies documentary?
Were you a collector?
YEMISI BROOKES:No.
‘Beanie Mania’.hbo max
I didn’t think I had realized previously how big it was here.
Whenever I would tell people this is what I’m making, everyone had a reaction.
Every single person was like, “Oh my God, Beanie Babies!
Beanie Babies sell at the Leesport Farmers Market stand in 2004.Tim Leedy/getty
I remember those.”
Tell me about the women you discovered were at the heart of the craze?
How did you go about tracking them down?
But what was interesting that we found was, amongst the collectors, there are kind of different tiers.
So yeah, they were really big.
Beanies was like a whole subculture.
Some of them made loads of money, and others went into extreme debt.
Did you find any hesitation from some of them to talk about this stuff?
And I’m pretty used to straight-talking New Yorkers, right?
He just has never particularly created publicity.
He doesn’t like to be in the public eye.
And he sent a very polite email back and said, “That’s a pass from me.”
Was there something you learned in the process of making this documentary that really surprised you?
Watching back the archive footage and seeing how mental and nuts it was, was really something.
I definitely, because I didn’t live through it here, hadn’t realized that.
That was surprising to me.
Then I think the other thing was understanding how much work these women had put into this.
This was beyond a hobby.
And she says, “I wonder if this just went too far.
Because she was so in this kind of bubble of it.
It really was like a moment in time for them as well.
Was it fun to collect some for that and then get to throw them around a bit?
And that was really funny and nostalgic for them.
We found this one guy on Craigslist.
He was in Staten Island.
So the art department went and got all of these Beanies.
That was a really fun filming day, just throwing Beanies around.
Then me and the crew took our favorite ones home.
So yeah, that was a good day’s work.
So, let me ask the same question of you.
Do you have a favorite?
I mean, I can’t believe how in-depth…
I can go so granular with it.
This could be my special subject now, Beanie Babies.
And I’m just looking at them now because they’re actually in my living room.
But there’s one called the Peace Bear, which has tie-dye fabric.
It’s like a traditional bear shape and it has a little peace sign.
So that one feels like very 2021, but that was kind of my favorite.
And I’ve never seen that one before.
The film ends on a forward-looking note.
Do you think we could be headed for another Beanie craze?
Is this doc the start of one?
[Laughs] I’m not sure.
But she told me that the amount that she’s authenticating is massively going up.
So that makes me think that maybe it’s going to be kind of back on the rise.
As I said, all things ’90s are quite fashionable and cool at the moment.
We’re just waiting for the right time to sell.”
So I think maybe the market is flooded, but we will see.
