An interview with the late Jane Goodall, a primatologist renowned for her research into chimpanzees, has been given a posthumous release by Netflix as part of a Famous Last Words docuseries.
Goodall, who died on Oct. 1 at 91, appears in one of her last interviews to discuss her life and legacy as a conservationist and environmental advocate. The sit-down conversation, shot earlier this year, is the first episode of an upcoming docuseries, Famous Last Words, on Netflix where cultural icons sum up their lives and careers with final words to be heard by a grieving world only after their death.
“Jane Goodall was fearless in all things. She deeply loved humanity and the natural world. It was clear to me in our conversation that she was approaching her final adventure with the same fearlessness, hope, humor and joy that she approached everything else in life. She was one of the world’s greatest and most beloved champions of good,” Brad Falchuk, executive producer of the docuseries, said in a statement on Friday.
While living among chimpanzees in Africa starting in the 1960s, Goodall documented the wild animals and changed how humans look at primates. Over time, Goodall concluded she needed to alert the world to a global climate crisis to protect the natural world of chimpanzees with whom she worked to gain their trust.
Goodall launched the Jane Goodall Institute and became a UN messenger of peace during her lifetime. The producers of the Famous Last Words series said she offered personal insights and never before heard stories about her scientific work and life in the sit-down appearance.
“The conversation is extremely honest and revealing and, knowing this would only air after she was gone, Goodall spoke movingly about her own death,” the producers added in a statement.
The Netflix series is based on the Danish format Det Sidste Ord (The Last Word), which offers final interviews where major cultural icons, whether from the world of the arts, sports, politics or elsewhere, can look back on their lives with only someone posing questions in front of them.
Falchuk executive produces the Netflix series alongside Mikkel Bondesen, David Goldberg and showrunner David Friedman.
