One Direction launch 3D behind-the-scenes documentary

This is Us has allowed them to present themselves in a more realistic manner than how they are depicted in videos, concerts and social media sites, they said.

“There is only so much you can get across in terms of your personality, you know, social media and like 10-minute interviews you do with people,” singer Harry Styles said. “So I think it’s a way for us to get across what we are like and what we are like with each other for the fans to see.”

Band members Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Styles were all on hand to talk about the behind-the-scenes film and the media interest that has engulfed them since they first became a group on British TV talent show The X-Factor in 2010.

The film, directed by Super Size Me documentary maker Morgan Spurlock, includes concert footage, life backstage and on the road. But Styles laughed off one reporter’s question about whether footage with groupies or drugs had been edited out. “This is a family press conference,” Styles said.

“Part of the reason I think they have been so successful with their fans is that they are so incredibly grounded and normal and that’s what comes off in the movie — there’s no air of superiority,” he said.

The band, whose members are in their late teens and early 20s, topped the Billboard 200 album chart twice last year with Up All Night and their second album Take Me Home. They were named Billboard’s top new artist/group in 2012.

In an interview with Reuters TV on Monday, Malik said, “We never wanted to have the title ‘celebrity,’ we just want to be normal lads in a music band. We’re not celebrities, we’re just in a band.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 21^st, 2013.

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