This is where O\u2019Sullivan is holed up, an hour before his movie premiere in London\u2019s Leicester Square. He emerges from another room with a smile, offers a fist bump and sits down. He is dressed in a blue jumper, dark jeans and smart shoes. Executive producer David Beckham is among the famous guests coming to celebrate O\u2019Sullivan, journalists are here to ask questions, and fans are sat in cinemas around the country to watch the film and a live Q&A afterwards. And he\u2019s dreading it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019d have looked at the contract before doing this and it said, you\u2019ve got to do a premiere, I\u2019d have probably said, \u2018that\u2019s me out then\u2019,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan says with a wry grin. \u201cWhen we started, they said there\u2019s going to be a film festival and I was like, \u2018I\u2019ve got to go to that?\u2019 They were like, \u2018yeah\u2019. I was like, \u2018f**k\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not my sort of thing really, but I\u2019m trying to learn to embrace it. I\u2019ve not been very good at taking compliments or a pat on the back. If people say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019ve always followed your game\u2019, I\u2019m always cringing inside. I\u2019m trying to work on not being like that and letting people be happy for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is O\u2019Sullivan in a nutshell, thrown into places he doesn\u2019t want to be, often of his own choosing, and having to deal with it. It is his life story, of two sides butting heads: the introvert with erratic mental health and the sporting genius. In his film, you see that contradiction in the eyes of the shy teenager thrown into the limelight, in the celebrity who never courted fame, in the star who hates crowds, in the snooker player who despises the \u201cevil\u201d Crucible Theatre.<\/p>\n
So it is a little surprising that O\u2019Sullivan opened himself up so nakedly for this two-year project, The Edge of Everything<\/em>. The director, Sam Blair, spent the first three months earning his subject\u2019s trust before bringing in a single camera, although he needn\u2019t have: O\u2019Sullivan felt safe immediately on meeting Blair, a low-key character.<\/p>\n O\u2019Sullivan during The Edge of Everything documentary<\/p>\n \u201cI said to Sam at the start of it, \u2018I\u2019m not going to tell you that you can\u2019t film this and can\u2019t film that\u2019,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan says. \u201cJust assume you can film everything. And if there was a time I don\u2019t want them to film, I\u2019ll let you know, Sam. It\u2019s easier that way otherwise we\u2019ll be driving each other mad. Just assume you\u2019ve got carte blanche. We became really good friends. There\u2019s a lot of trust between me and Sam, so I just thought, OK, go for it. There wasn\u2019t one point where I said, \u2018no, you\u2019re not coming in\u2019. I thought, if we\u2019re going to do it, let\u2019s do a proper job.\u201d<\/p>\n The result is a revelatory documentary. Thousands of words have been written about the seven-time world champion, but nothing digs under his skin and into his mind quite like this. There is a rawness to the footage, which captures O\u2019Sullivan crying, urinating, smoking, burping and swearing. It shows an intimate hotel-room breakfast with Jimmy White in which they argue politely over who should eat the first full English to arrive. There are moments when O\u2019Sullivan is aware of the cameras and others when he seems to have forgotten.<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t want to be that brutal with my kids and I couldn\u2019t be<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n One of the most eye-opening parts is his family\u2019s memory of his father\u2019s arrest for murder. Ronnie O\u2019Sullivan Snr gave his son inspiration, advice and discipline. Then he stabbed to death the driver of gangster Charlie Kray in a nightclub fight, and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. O\u2019Sullivan was only 17, and in the film he cries as he remembers his dad\u2019s final words as he was taken down from the dock: \u201cTell my boy to win.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he went away, I had a really special, close relationship with my dad,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan says now. \u201cWe\u2019d been on that march together [towards professional snooker] and for him to not be there, I just thought half of me had been sliced out and taken away. It was just horrible. When he said that, I knew he meant it, that was the thing. It was tough, but I think that\u2019s what drove me on to play because I didn\u2019t want to make him feel bad or be disappointed in me. I was doing it more for my dad at times than I ever was for myself, but is that a bad thing? I\u2019m not sure. I think it kept me playing.\u201d<\/p>\n The film shows how O\u2019Sullivan Snr would make a young Ronnie go running to shed weight. His dad would drive in a car behind him, which O\u2019Sullivan describes as \u201chumiliating\u201d. O\u2019Sullivan is a father himself now. He doesn\u2019t see his 27-year-old first daughter, but he does have a close relationship with teenage children Lily and Ronnie Jr after years battling over custody.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t want to be that brutal with my kids and I couldn\u2019t be,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe there\u2019s an inbetween somewhere. Maybe I\u2019m a little bit too easy and slack with them in certain things. It\u2019s hard. Your parents just do the best they can possibly do and that was fine. But there\u2019s certain things you go through as a kid where you think, maybe I don\u2019t want to put my kids through that.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Sullivan poses with his children, Lily and Ronnie Jr, after winning the 2022 title<\/p>\n Blair was careful to win over O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s father and spent a year getting to know his mother, Maria, before proposing an interview. Even then, their conversations were held without cameras, and in the film his parents\u2019 voices play over the top of old home video and polaroid pictures.<\/p>\n Maria talks in the documentary about how she sent her son to a tournament in Thailand to distance him from the news about her father\u2019s arrest for murder. She says she always regretted it and adds: \u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s ever forgiven me.\u201d This was news to O\u2019Sullivan, who had no idea his mother had been harbouring guilt for 30 years. He found out when they watched the film together, and they cried.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen she said that, I was thinking, really? I\u2019d never even given it a second thought,\u201d he says. \u201cI know she was doing it thinking it was the right thing to do. She was holding on to all that for that long. I wish she\u2019d have said something to me.\u201d<\/p>\n At times the film is an uncomfortable watch, because you witness a man endure what looks like a serious mental-health episode. He is sitting in his dressing room during the 2022 World Championship final, utterly tormented by the idea of losing his enormous lead \u2013 which, gradually, he is losing. As he talks to the people around him, his voice speeds up. His face twitches. He looks pained. It seems like a possible panic attack, though O\u2019Sullivan describes it as \u201cstage fright\u201d.<\/p>\n He found the whole documentary hard to watch back. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a great experience to be honest, it was quite harrowing watching it. It looked a lot worse than it felt, if you know what I mean. Visually you could see I was going through it a lot at times.<\/p>\n \u201cI was on a plane going to China and watched a documentary about people who\u2019ve done documentaries and how it\u2019s affected their lives. They\u2019ve needed counselling and therapy and this and that just to come out of it, because it was a bad experience. So I thought, well at least I\u2019m not the only one who has had that feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n The film helps to understand why he might not like the Crucible. For someone who demands perfection of himself and simultaneously suffers from crushing self-doubt, performing in a windowless room where you can hear a pin drop is not a recipe for a happy or healthy mind. It can be a lonely, mind-numbing place, watching your opponent unpick your lead one ball at a time, and it forces you to dig deep into your mental reserves.<\/p>\n O\u2019Sullivan and David Beckham attend the The Edge of Everything premiere<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t been prepared to do that for quite a few years in Sheffield,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan admits. \u201cI know it sounds crazy but I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s worth it. If you haven\u2019t won the World Championship then yeah, it\u2019s worth it. But when I got to four, that was enough. I\u2019m quite happy with that. It hasn\u2019t been a total failure. And to get to seven is great.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I was ultra critical and hard on myself then I could possibly have got to double figures if I hadn\u2019t lost those earlier years and things would have been different in my private life. But you have to think, do I really need this? Do I really need another World Championship? The answer is, for me, no.\u201d<\/p>\n He puts his 2022 victory down to the cameras, which spurred him to deliver for his newfound audience. Could he summon whatever\u2019s needed \u2013 mental resilience, physical endurance, the all-out survival skills \u2013 to win one more world title and surpass Stephen Hendry?<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure I\u2019ll pitch up and play again. Whether I\u2019ve got another one in me, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t think I have, to be honest with you, if I\u2019m being brutally honest with you. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve got another one in me. But I thought that in 2011 and I\u2019ve won a few since then so it\u2019s strange how things can turn out.\u201d<\/p>\n With that, O\u2019Sullivan gives a smile and another fist bump, and wanders back into the other room. He attends the premiere, posing for photos on the red (green, in fact) carpet. Afterwards he sits on stage with Beckham and Blair, and the final question asks for his favourite part of the film. He wriggles in his chair. \u201cMaybe the family bits,\u201d he says briskly. And much later, he posts on his Instagram, or at least someone does: \u201cWow. What a night.\u201d<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/static.independent.co.uk\/2023\/11\/20\/13\/TheEdgeOfEverything_UHD_HDR_OnlineMaster_Ronnie%20Sofa%2010.11.34.08%202.jpg\")
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