How Taming the Beast Got Its Name

8/6/2026

A few days ago, Generation Iron shared a short reel in which Eddie Hall explains what the title Taming the Beast means to him.

Watching it made me smile.

Because while Eddie explains the title from his perspective, I realised I've never shared how the title came to life from mine.

For almost nine years, people have asked me about Eddie Hall, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hollywood, production, streaming platforms, financing, premieres, and distribution. Yet very few people have ever asked a surprisingly simple question:

Where did the title Taming the Beast actually come from?

Today I'd like to answer that.

The untold story behind the title Taming the Beast. Lead Executive Producer Guido Baechler reflects on nine years of filmmaking, Eddie Hall, mental health, and the journey that shaped the documentary.

When I Joined the Project

When I took over the production in 2018, I genuinely believed I was helping finish an almost completed documentary.

The project was then called The Beast: When Eddie Met Arnie.

At the time, it seemed fairly straightforward. Eddie Hall had become World's Strongest Man, he wanted to meet his childhood hero Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the documentary followed that journey.

I had no idea that I had just committed myself to what would become nearly nine years of my life.

If someone had shown me the next nine years—the pandemic, cancelled productions, financing challenges, endless flights, sleepless nights, wonderful friendships, and unforgettable premieres—I honestly might have paused before saying yes.

Thankfully, life rarely tells us the whole story.

It usually only shows us the next step.

Discovering the Real Story

The longer we worked with the footage, the more something began to change. Feature films start with a screenplay. Documentaries don't. Life has already written the script. The filmmaker's job is simply to discover it.

Every interview. Every scene. Every conversation. Every quiet moment.

Slowly we stopped seeing Eddie Hall simply as the World's Strongest Man.

We started seeing a husband. A father. A man carrying enormous expectations. Someone living with doubt, fear, depression, and the constant search for purpose after achieving the greatest goal of his life.

The documentary wasn't changing.

Our understanding of it was.

Then the World Stopped - The offices were Empty

When COVID arrived, everything came to a halt. Productions stopped. Travel became impossible. Plans disappeared overnight.

Looking back, the pandemic delayed the film—but it also gave us something unexpected:
Perspective.

For the first time we stepped back from asking, How do we finish this documentary? Instead, we started asking a different question.

"What is this film actually about?"

That question changed everything.

The Beast Was No Longer Just Eddie

By the time production restarted in 2022, something had become obvious to me. We weren't only trying to understand Eddie anymore. We were trying to understand the film itself.

We had spent years trying to;

Tame schedules.
Tame production.
Tame financing.
Tame a global pandemic.
Tame expectations.
Tame ourselves.

One day it suddenly occurred to me. This wasn't only about Eddie Hall learning to tame his inner beast.
Every one of us involved in the project had our own beast to overcome. And in that moment, the old title no longer felt right.

Somewhere in late 2018 or early 2019, I wrote down a new working title:

Taming the Beast – The Emptiness Within.

The subtitle reflected Eddie's emotional journey after becoming World's Strongest Man—the emptiness that can follow even the greatest success. Over time, however, I realised the subtitle wasn't necessary.
The first three words already said everything.

Taming the Beast.

Simple. Powerful. Universal. - Because the beast is different for every person.

A Film That Changed Along With Us

One of the greatest lessons documentary filmmaking has taught me is that you cannot force a story. You have to listen to it. There were moments when I believed we knew exactly what this documentary was about.

Then life happened. COVID happened. Eddie's life continued. New chapters appeared. New struggles emerged. The story kept writing itself. - Our job was simply to keep listening.

Nine Years Later

When I look back today, I rarely think first about contracts, budgets, or premieres.

I think about people.

- Chris Fretwell, who started filming Eddie years before I joined.
- Josias Tschanz, who helped us discover what the documentary was truly about.
- Our incredible post-production team in Vancouver.
- Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Sylvester Stallone.
- Daniele Obino.
- And, of course, Eddie himself.

No film is ever made by one person.

- It's built on trust.
- On friendship.
- On people who continue believing in a story even when nobody knows how it will end.

Watching Eddie explain the title in the Generation Iron reel reminded me that every person connected to Taming the Beast probably has their own interpretation of those three words.

This one just happens to be mine.

Guido

0 Comments