Selena Gomez admits she ‘almost wasn’t going to’ release her Apple TV+ documentary
Selena Gomez admits she ‘almost wasn’t going to’ release her Apple TV+ documentary because she was ‘so nervous’ to lay bare her struggles to the world
Selena Gomez stepped out in New York City on Wednesday to attend an FYC screening of her Apple TV+ documentary, ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me.’
The Disney Channel alum, 30, also held a Q&A where she discussed the film that gives fan an intimate look at her mental health and lupus diagnosis over a six-year period.
She admitted to hosts Benji Pasek and Justin Paul that she hesitated releasing the doc because she was ‘so nervous’ to lay bare her struggles to the world.
‘I’m just so nervous. Because I have the platform I have, it’s kind of like I’m sacrificing myself a little bit for a greater purpose,’ she explained.
‘I don’t want that to sound dramatic, but I almost wasn’t going to put this out.’
She debated pulling the documentary’s release as recently as ‘a few weeks ago’ because she just ‘wasn’t sure I could do it.’
But despite her hesitance, ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me’ hit the streaming platform on November 2 and has received positive reception from fans and critics.
For Wednesday’s occasion, Gomez cut a chic figure in a leggy black minidress styled with a cozy brown coat.
She slipped on a pair of knee-high black leather boots and painted her nails a vibrant red.
The Rare Beauty founder’s shoulder-length brunette hair was worn in curls and her plump pout was painted a peachy pink.
Her eyebrows were perfectly sculpted and she decked out her eyes with individual faux lashes for a flirty look.
Gomez was first spotted arriving the evening event.
She swiftly exited a black chauffeur vehicle and headed towards The Metrograph with the documentary’s director, Alek Keshishian.
Keshishian rocked gray-blue slim fit trousers and a navy blue wool sweater.
Discussion: The Disney Channel alum, 30, also held a Q&A where she discussed the film that gives fan an intimate look at her mental health struggles and life with lupus; (L-R) Benji Pasek, Selena Gomez, Alek Keshishian and Justin Paul
The duo posed up for several photographs before mingling with the Q&A hosts Benji Pasek and Justin Paul.
After the screening, Gomez and Keshishian took to the stage to discuss their motivations behind the documentary with Pasek and Paul.
Initially ‘Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me’ was set to follow Gomez along her Revival tour in 2016, however director Keshishian ultimately dropped the documentary after she cancelled her tour due to her mental health struggles.
‘I’m just so nervous. Because I have the platform I have, it’s kind of like I’m sacrificing myself a little bit for a greater purpose,’ she explained. ‘I don’t want that to sound dramatic, but I almost wasn’t going to put this out’
Filming resumed in 2019 as Gomez visited schools in Kenya along with the WE Foundation and cameras continued capturing her in several deeply personal moments – from the beginning of the pandemic to the return of her lupus and of course her mental health issues.
‘I was in her home, and she [would be] in tears,’ Keshishian recalled. ‘I’m holding my iPhone, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know whether I should shoot this.’ And she was like, ‘No, I want you to shoot this. I want you to shoot this.”
Keshishian eventually realized he was capturing ‘a deeper documentary here about a young woman struggling to incorporate her diagnosis — she was fresh out of the mental facility — and trying to reconcile the fact that she’s still a patient, she’s still in the earliest stages of her recovery, but she desperately wants to use her platform for good and to talk about it.
‘There’s some tension there because obviously she’s trying to be an example for others, but she’s still not on the other side of it, so to speak.’
Initially Selena grappled with the thought of releasing the deeply personal documentary, but after watching an audience at a test screening of the film, decided to go through with it.
‘I was like, ‘OK, if I can just do that for one person, imagine what it could do.’ Eventually I just kind of went for it. I just said, ‘Yes.”
Raw: Filming resumed in 2019 as Gomez visited schools in Kenya along with the WE Foundation and cameras continued capturing her in several deeply personal moments – from the beginning of the pandemic to the return of her lupus and of course her mental health issues
‘I was in her home, and she [would be] in tears,’ Keshishian recalled. ‘I’m holding my iPhone, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know whether I should shoot this.’ And she was like, “No, I want you to shoot this. I want you to shoot this”‘; Keshishian seen in November