Alanis Morissette has distanced herself from Jagged, Alison Klayman’s forthcoming HBO documentary about the singer-songwriter. Following the movie’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Washington Post reported that the film includes Morissette coming forward with statutory-rape allegations against unnamed men. It also claimed Morissette had refused to promote the film. “I agreed to participate in a piece about the celebration of Jagged Little Pill’s 25th anniversary and was interviewed during a very vulnerable time (while in the midst of my third postpartum depression during lockdown),†she said in a statement to Variety. “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. This is when I knew our visions were in fact painfully diverged. This was not the story I agreed to tell.â€
“I sit here now experiencing the full impact of having trusted someone who did not warrant being trusted,†she continued. “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 unauthorized 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.â€
Klayman demurred when asked about the controversy by Deadline. “It’s a really hard thing, I think, to see a movie made about yourself,†she said. “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.â€