Alanis Morissette criticises “salacious” new documentary about her life

Despite participating in the film, the singer is not happy.

Alanis Morissette has criticised a new HBO documentary about her life for having a "salacious agenda". The film, titled Jagged, premiered earlier in the week at the Toronto International Film Festival to positive reviews. It follows the life and career of the musician, centring on the release of her 1995 album Jagged Little Pill. Despite being interviewed for the documentary, Morissette said she was unhappy after seeing a cut of the film and will not be supporting the project. The musician said that she agreed to participate to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her iconic album. However, in a statement issued by her publicist, the singer states that she was interviewed “during a very vulnerable time” amid her third postpartum depression during lockdown. “I was lulled into a false sense of security and their salacious agenda became apparent immediately upon my seeing the first cut of the film," Morissette said. "This is when I knew our visions were in fact painfully diverged. This was not the story I agreed to tell. “I have chosen not to attend any event around this movie for two reasons: one is that I am on tour right now. The other is that, not unlike many ‘stories’ and unauthorised biographies out there over the years, this one includes implications and facts that are simply not true. “While there is beauty and some elements of accuracy in this/my story to be sure, I ultimately won’t be supporting someone else’s reductive take on a story much too nuanced for them to ever grasp or tell.” Morissette did not mention specifically what parts of Jagged she takes issue with. During the documentary, the singer states she had multiple sexual encounters when she was 15 which she describes as statutory rape. On Morissette's reaction to the film, Jagged's director Alison Klayman told Deadline: “It’s a really hard thing, I think, to see a movie made about yourself. "I think she’s incredibly brave and the reaction when she saw it was that it was a really - she could feel all the work, all the nuance that went into it. And again, she gave so much of her time and so much of her effort into making this and I think that the movie really speaks for itself.” Jagged is scheduled to be released on 19 November by HBO in the US. It does not have an Irish release date yet.