Life, though, has been anything but real for One Direction, ever since the five of them were meshed into a band by the Machiavellian hands of Simon Cowell on Britain's The X Factor in 2010. They came third in the show but have gone on to sell about 30 million records. Their second album, Take Me Home was No1 in 35 countries, and they are chased by girls everywhere they go - outside concert venues, in hotel lobbies, and outside their mothers' houses.
What on earth don't fans like these already know about One Direction?
"Lots," says Styles earnestly, his angelic face furrowed with concentration. "This was really a bit of a thank you to fans really, for sticking with us. We wanted to show them the real us, because social media and interviews don't really give you the chance to get to know someone. I really think this will help."
Like all groups, One Direction are locked up together for long periods of time; after three years they can finish each other's sentences. There are band dynamics within the band: Styles and Tomlinson do most of the talking; they have a rapport, which means Twitter constantly speculates as to whether they're an item. They jabber like magpies when asked a question, but if you want a serious, considered answer, it's Styles who will deliver it after the others have finished chirruping; this boy is more than the serial Lothario that has become his media reputation.
So when asked why they chose Spurlock to direct the film, the others shout out, "his jacket" or "his moustache", but Styles patiently waits until they've finished, and adds: "We really liked his style of film-making. Whatever Morgan does, he always seems to get right into it - he immerses himself into that world. And that's what we wanted; it's nerve-racking letting people into our lives, even if cameras were following us around on The X Factor for 10 weeks. We needed someone we could trust because we were actually scared. But we've never said to him: 'Stop filming, this is private. We really did want everything about us to go in'.
Forty-two-year-old Spurlock, famous for eating fast food for a month in Super Size Me, has made other documentaries, such as 2008's Where in the World Is Osama Bin Laden? but has wanted to do a music documentary for some time: "There's great potential there, kind of like A Hard Day's Night or The Monkees." Turned down by Katy Perry and Justin Bieber to direct their personal outpourings on tour, Spurlock seems to have clicked with these Anglo-Irish boys half his age: "I do understand something of what it is like because after my breakthrough with Super Size Me everything went a bit nuts for me, too. And then people were pretty quick to say, 'Oh who's this idiot he's got no chance'. So I understand what the boys go through when they're dismissed as little mannequins who dance and sing. But mainly, we built a rapport just through hanging out. They could see that I was investing in them, and they came to allow themselves to be vulnerable to me, I think."
Spurlock does get some great material for the film: Malik buying a house for his mother; Horan's quiet musings with his brother before a family wedding; Martin Scorsese bringing his daughter backstage after a gig. However unscripted it's billed to be, it can hardly be unco-ordinated when One Direction are run by Cowell's Syco machine. The boys insist they have asked for nothing to be left out so far, even when they look really stupid, and that the final say will go to Spurlock, not Cowell. But their image is still heavily protected on screen; their fans are highly sensitive.
"Some of the girls are crazy," recalls Spurlock, clearly still flabbergasted. "The boys have such a security apparatus around them constantly just to protect them. If they walk outside they will be mobbed, they will be chased. Their tour bus is chased down the street by hundreds of girls after the show. So for us it was trying to maintain this intimacy; but safety was a big concern because you don't want to do something where someone will actually get hurt.
"Their families, too. I mean they have millions of Twitter followers just off the back of the boys, and have suffered terrible intrusion over the past three years. I am really grateful that they allowed my cameras in, considering what they've had to put up with."
"I don't know why the girls love us so much," shrugs Styles, who gets most of the attention, although clean-cut blond, Irish-born Horan recently took the crown as most popular member in a recent poll. "I think it's because we don't pretend to be anything we're not. Yes, we can be idiots at times. We're like those boys in the back of class throwing paper and making a noise. I think girls can relate to us in that classroom way; we're just normal lads." All five are now certainly too old to be throwing paper in classrooms: they range from 19 to 21.
Surely at some point, as with all boy bands, this bubble will burst and one of them will break out, be photographed, wild-eyed and drunk. But right now, they're remarkably sober about their success. "Helping the people we love," says Styles. "Out of all the success we have had, the fact that we have been put in a position to do something tangible for them is the best thing we have achieved so far."
What: One Direction: This Is Us, the band's 3D behind-the-scenes movie, directed by Morgan Spurlock
When: Opens at cinemas September 19
Live: Vector Arena, Auckland, Oct 12 and 13
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- TimeOutIndependent
