Selena Gómez openly reveals the rawness of fame in ‘My mind & me’

It is a documentary in which the artist talks about her emotional ups and downs, and how the weight of the spotlight and her success on social networks broke her mental health.
That for fame you pay a high price that not everyone could bear is something well known, but that an artist of the stature of Selena Gómez decides to open her mouth and tell her darkest emotions in a documentary dedicated to her person. It’s the usual thing.

Alek Keshishian, the filmmaker who revolutionized the world of celebrities by showing Madonna in her daily life with the film “Truth or Dare” (1991), premieres this Friday on Apple TV+ “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me”, a new film in which Gómez talks about his emotional ups and downs, and how the weight of the spotlight and his dazzling success on social networks took a toll on his mental health.

«Nowadays you see celebrities at home. But what’s in this documentary is different, I think she opens up on a much deeper emotional level. There are scenes that she would never have decided to put on her social networks,” Keshishian responds in an interview with EFE.

The filmmaker completely forgets the successes of the former Disney child star, who conquered her generation with “Wizards of Waverly Place”, transitioned without scandal to an adult musical career and became the most followed artist on Instagram, to present her as a person in constant debate with what accompanies him everywhere: his mind.

Their first meeting took place in 2016, when Gómez was on an intense tour after publishing the album “Revival”, which confirmed her as one of the references of international pop.

Although Keshishian already warned that his way of recording was “very intrusive”, he himself decided to stop filming at the moment when the young star, then 23 years old (now he is 30), had to cancel his tour to attend a mental health center.

“I realized that it wasn’t the time, I was being very intrusive to everything she was going through,” he recalls.

Images of concerts, trips, receptions by euphoric fans and marathon days of rehearsals occupy the first minutes of the documentary until the succession of scenes, like Gómez’s energy, collapses.

After some interviews in which members of her team remember the hell in which the singer was immersed, the documentary jumps to the year 2019, when, having recovered from her diagnosis of bipolarity and lupus, she undertakes a trip to Kenya to participate in volunteer work.

From that excursion, Keshishian once again focuses the lens of his camera on Gómez during his search to give new meaning to his public exhibition.

“I said to myself ‘wait a second, here is a fascinating story because she has come out, she has her diagnosis, she is recovering and she wants to help others,'” says the director.

Instead of reviewing her achievements, or showing a return in style, the artist confesses to the camera that she constantly reconsiders leaving the entertainment industry, that it is difficult for her to advertise herself and that she suffers from an obvious imposter syndrome. which repeats that she is not good enough to occupy the place she is in.

One scene shows Gómez traveling exhausted after a day of promotion in Paris, in another she is unable to follow the journalists’ questions and in another she flees from the superficiality of Hollywood by trying to connect with her roots in Grand Prairie. the Texas town where he grew up.

“I showed things that maybe she didn’t realize until she saw them,” says Keshishian.

Although “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me” tells the life of an unusual person, the filmmaker understands that today, more than ever, the viewer can feel identified with the protagonist’s feelings because more and more people see themselves as themselves as brands.

«I think young people are constantly working on their brand, on creating a perfect life. And I can’t imagine the pressure of seeing other colleagues look a certain way, act a certain way and have that be a measure of success,” she reflects.

“I hope that after watching this film, they can remember that all of this is an illusion and that they will not find true happiness there,” he adds.

EFE

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