The new documentary "Barbara Walters Tell Me Everything," which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and streams on Hulu June 23, casts a spotlight on the late TV legend's unwavering ambition and the extreme lengths she would go to secure coveted interviews. Colleagues, friends, and even competitors, including Oprah Winfrey and Cynthia McFadden, share insights into Walters' ruthless pursuit of stories that redefined television journalism.

Oprah Winfrey recounts a pivotal moment in 1999 during the Bill Clinton sex scandal, where she had an agreement to secure Monica Lewinsky's first television interview. However, Barbara Walters "swooped in" with a more comprehensive offer, promising not just a primetime special but also segments on "Nightline" and "Good Morning America." Walters, who passed away in December 2022 at 93, later expressed no regrets about this maneuver, boasting that her interview with Lewinsky became "the highest rated news interview of all time. Nothing has surpassed it." This success was the culmination of a full year spent strategically engaging with Lewinsky.

Walters' trailblazing approach fundamentally altered the TV interview format. She pioneered centering celebrity subjects, delving into deeply personal questions, and possessed a unique ability to encourage sought-after individuals to open up to millions of viewers. As Oprah Winfrey observes, "If there was something that deserved a special one-on-one interview, I think she felt that she was the one that was supposed to have it. And nine point nine times out of ten, she got it."

A hallmark of Walters' interviews was her propensity to make subjects cry on air. Oprah Winfrey herself experienced this during her 1988 sit-down with Walters, revealing personal details about childhood sexual abuse for the first time. Winfrey muses, "I think many people went into every Barbara Walters interview saying ‘I’m not going to cry, I’m not going to cry,’ and then bam—you end up doing the thing you thought you most didn’t want to do."

Beyond her interview tactics, Walters' career was marked by groundbreaking achievements; she was the first female news anchor and eventually the highest-paid anchor of either gender. Her philosophy, as she states in the film, was simply, "I just worked and I didn’t whine." Yet, this legendary career often came at the expense of stepping on others' toes. Cynthia McFadden, a former NBC News journalist and long-time friend of Walters, shared an anecdote about Walters attempting to persuade Katharine Hepburn to cancel an interview with Diane Sawyer, a rival at ABC, to instead appear with her. Despite Walters' significant pressure, Hepburn famously upheld her promise to Sawyer.

The documentary also explores the profound personal cost of Walters' relentless ambition. Her dedication to her work often overshadowed her personal life, including its impact on her only daughter, Jacqueline Dena Guber, and her romantic relationships. Peter Gethers, who collaborated with Walters on her 2008 memoir "Audition," concludes in the film, "I never got the sense from talking to her that there was one absolute love of her life. Her job was the love of her life." Katie Couric, another Walters disciple, reflects on this aspect, stating, "I felt like she neglected her personal life and poured so much into her work life that I’m not sure she was a truly happy person." Couric acknowledged that this observation influenced her own desire to prioritize family alongside her career.