Ken Dashow

Ken Dashow

Listen to Ken Dashow everyday and don't forget about Breakfast With The Beatles every Sunday Morning.Full Bio

 

Alanis Morissette Denounces Her Own HBO Documentary As 'Salacious'

Photo: Getty Images North America

Alanis Morissette has disowned the upcoming HBO documentary about her life and early career, saying the filmmakers misled her about their angle and violated her trust in the editing room.

Morissette's public flip on the project came shortly after the film's director, Alison Klayman, confirmed to Deadline that the subject of the film would not be attending its premiere.

In a statement released through her management, Morissette explained that aside from the fact that she is on tour right now, she would not be supporting the film because it "includes implications and facts that are simply not true."

She added that Jagged is "someone else's reductive take on a story much too nuanced for them to ever grasp or tell."

Morissette reportedly agreed to participate in the film understanding that it would be a celebration of the anniversary of her seminal Jagged Little Pill debut album, which was released in 1995. But she says that the hours of interviews with her were conducted in the midst of her "third postpartum depression during lockdown." She says the "salacious agendas" of the filmmakers became apparent after she saw the first cut of the film.

It's unclear what precisely has Morissette so frustrated. The AV Club reports that Jagged curiously presents Morissette as a one-album wonder, when she's had a long career since her debut album. But it also dives into Morissette's history of alleged sexual abuse.

The singer songwriter says in the film that she began having sexual encounters with older men when she was as young as 15 years old. While the age of consent at the time in Canada was 14, Morissette says she realized through years of therapy that she was a victims of statutory rape. She says previous attempts to disclose the experiences "kind of fell on deaf ears" and that there were almost no support systems for her within the music industry at the time.

But the sexual abuse angle doesn't end with the film's subject. One segment features former members of Morissette's band (including drummer Taylor Hawkins) admitting to heavy drug use and leveraging the singer-songwriter's fame into sexual encounters with young women fans backstage at concerts. Morissette says in the film that she considered the behavior "disrespectful" and put a stop to it when she found out about it at the time.

HBO is set to debut Jagged on November 19.


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content