Céline Dion insisted that graphic footage of herself having a violent muscle spasm should stay in a new documentary about her life, the film’s director has said.
In an interview with Variety, Irene Taylor, the director of “I Am: Céline Dion,” said the legendary singer insisted on keeping the “intensely revealing” moment in the final cut.
Upon being shown the footage, “the very first thing she said was, ‘I think this film can help me,’” according to Taylor. “And then she said, ‘And I don’t want you to cut out that scene, and don’t cut it down.’”
The scene in question came as a shock to Taylor, who did not expect to film Dion having one of the spasms associated with stiff person syndrome, the neurological condition with which she was been diagnosed.
“Statistically, the likelihood that that would happen while my camera was rolling is extraordinarily rare,” she said. “No one expected that to happen. We never discussed, ‘What if that happens, what do we do?’ Never even had that conversation, because we just assumed it wouldn’t happen.”
Dion first shared her diagnosis in an emotional video post back in 2022.
