Eddie Hall Talks Taming the Beast with Kai Greene and Edwin Mejia at Generation Iron

In a recent Generation Iron podcast conversation with host Kai Greene and co-host Edwin Mejia, Eddie Hall opened up about the deeper story behind Taming the Beast—and why the film is about far more than becoming World's Strongest Man.

The discussion touches on depression, pressure, family, life after success, and the difficult reality of living as a public figure whose every action is judged by millions.
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For anyone interested in understanding the emotional core of Taming the Beast, this conversation offers an excellent introduction.

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​The Reality Behind the Public Image

Eddie begins by talking about something many successful athletes rarely discuss: losing.

For someone at his level of fame, a setback isn't simply something that happens in private. A poor performance, a mistake, or a personal conflict can immediately become public conversation.

As Eddie explains, part of the purpose of Taming the Beast is to show what life actually feels like from inside that pressure. The public sees the strength, the confidence, the victories and the larger-than-life personality. What they don't always see are the doubts, failures and emotional consequences that accompany them.

That contrast between the public "Beast" and the human being underneath is one of the documentary's central themes.

The Story That Continued After Eddie Strongman

Eddie also reflects on his earlier documentary, Eddie Strongman, released on Netflix in 2015.

That film followed a very different period of his life: working long hours, struggling financially, supporting a family and training relentlessly while trying to compete against the strongest men in the world. Eddie believes the documentary helped introduce a much wider audience to strongman and left viewers with one obvious question:

Would Eddie Hall eventually become World's Strongest Man?
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Of course, he did.

But Taming the Beast begins where that success story becomes much more complicated.
Since 2015, Eddie has broken the historic 500 kg deadlift barrier, won World's Strongest Man, appeared in and presented television shows, built businesses and continued expanding his family. But achieving the biggest goal of his life didn't make every problem disappear.

In Eddie's words, that was when many of the problems actually began.

Once you have achieved the dream you've sacrificed everything for, a much harder question follows:
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What do you do next?

​Eddie, Maximus and the Next Generation

One of the more personal sections of the conversation focuses on Eddie's son, Maximus.

Eddie speaks candidly about worrying that his son could follow some of the same emotional paths he experienced himself. He pushes Max hard and describes the physical, competitive relationship they share, but he also makes clear how deeply he cares about him.

For Eddie, one reason the documentary matters is that it gives Maximus the opportunity to see another side of his father—to understand not only what Eddie has achieved, but also the worries, sacrifices and motivations behind those achievements.

That father-and-son dimension adds another layer to the film.
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Taming the Beast is not simply about looking backward at Eddie's career. It's also about what gets passed forward.

​What Does "Taming the Beast" Really Mean?

Kai and Edwin also ask Eddie about the title of the documentary.

Eddie explains that the title was proposed by Guido Baechler, the film's Lead Executive Producer, and that it immediately felt appropriate.

To the outside world, Eddie is "The Beast": a huge, powerful character associated with lifting extraordinary weights, fighting and pushing physical limits.

But Eddie explains that there is more to him than that public identity.

Sometimes, he says, you have to "tame the beast" in order to live within ordinary society—to control that intensity rather than allowing it to control you.

That interpretation captures the essence of the film beautifully.

The beast isn't simply Eddie's nickname.
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It represents the intensity, ambition, anger, pressure and internal struggles that helped make him successful—but that also had to be understood and controlled.

​Eight Years of Life in One Documentary

Toward the end of the discussion, Eddie reminds viewers just how much life the filmmakers had to compress into a single documentary.

Taming the Beast spans approximately eight years of his journey.

That means there are victories, failures, family moments, behind-the-scenes experiences and major life changes that could never all fit into one film.

Eddie describes the documentary as only part of a much larger archive, with substantial additional material captured along the way.

Perhaps that's another reason the film feels so personal.
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It isn't a snapshot of one competition or one year.
It follows a human being changing over time.

​Watch the Full Generation Iron Conversation

Kai Greene and Edwin Mejia give Eddie the space to talk about subjects that don't always fit into traditional strength-sport interviews.

The result is a conversation about what happens after success, how public identity affects private life, the responsibility of fatherhood and what it really means to "tame" the part of yourself that helped make you who you are.
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For viewers of Taming the Beast, the podcast adds valuable context to Eddie Hall's journey and the ideas behind the documentary.

​Watch the full Generation Iron podcast with Eddie Hall, Kai Greene and Edwin Mejia below.