Lance Armstrong Opens Up About 'Living a Lie' in New Documentary
Sept. 6, 2013— -- Disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong was "very confident" he would never be caught using performance-enhancing drugs, according to a new documentary that is scheduled to be released later this year.
Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney started filming "The Armstrong Lie" in 2009 as he traveled the world with Armstrong. The documentary, at the time, was an attempt to make a feel-good story about the seven-time Tour de France winner's comeback.
Gibney's inspirational story was scrapped when Armstrong's career and life unraveled after accusations of doping. But Gibney had Armstrong's trust and was there to capture the eventual downfall of a decorated champion who would later admit to Oprah Winfrey that he doped to win the Tour de France seven times, titles that have now been stripped away.
"You know it's interesting. Living a lie. I didn't live a lot of lies. But I lived one big one. It's different, I guess. Maybe it's not," Armstrong said in the documentary hours after the Winfrey interview, according to an advanced clip viewed by ABC News.
"I certainly was very confident that I would never be caught," the fallen hero said in the astonishingly up-close and personal documentary.
Gibney was recently in Venice for the premiere "The Armstrong Lie," and says viewers will see a different side of Armstrong in the documentary, which is scheduled to be released in November.
"This is a guy that's used to winning and I think you could see the defeat in his physical posture and also a real vulnerability which is very unusual for Lance," Gibney said.
At times, Armstrong looks shell shocked as he recalled the high point of his career and personal life.
"Life for me at the time was moving fast. Look at 2005, I had won seven tours in a row, I was engaged to a beautiful rock star. But that all felt very normal to me," Armstrong said.
Gibney said Armstrong was very candid because "Lance is always a great curator of his myth, a great writer of his story and he wants influence on how it gets told."
Meanwhile, Armstrong faces more bad news after a Texas judge earlier this week ordered him to testify under oath about how he exactly cheated. Nebraska-based Acceptance Insurance Holding is seeking the information in its lawsuit to recover $3 million in bonuses it paid Armstrong from 1999 to 2001. The company is trying to prove a years-long conspiracy and cover-up by Armstrong to commit fraud.
Armstrong's attorneys objected to those demands in court documents, arguing the former cyclist already has acknowledged cheating and that Acceptance is engaged in a "harassing, malicious ... fishing expedition" intended to "make a spectacle of Armstrong's doping."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
