Celine Dion, a well-known singer who is considered the “Queen of Power Ballads,” recently opened up about her battle with Stiff-Person Syndrome.
In her new documentary, I Am: Celine Dion, the director, Irene Taylor, and cinematographer, Nick Midwig, filmed her struggles with stiff-person syndrome.
For the unversed, the 56-year-old singer was diagnosed with the condition in 2022, and she had to cancel her world tour because of muscle spasms and rigidity.
One of these spasms happened while Taylor and Midwig were filming, and it is shown in the movie.
Taking into account Dion’s health battle, Midwig shared during Deadline’s awards-season event Contenders Documentary, saying, “We both stood back and assessed, like, ‘Are we in the way?’ No. ‘Are we inhibiting her from any medical attention that she could get?’ No. ‘Was there anything that we could do to assist in aiding her in any way?’ No, we’re not trained medical professionals.”
Moving forward, Midwig said the episode lasted 40 minutes in real life, adding that it was edited to a few minutes in the documentary but still shows what Dion’s regular life looks like.
“I can imagine that was probably vindicating in some way for her of like, ‘This is a really serious disease. This is really inhibiting. This turned my life upside down.’ So in some way I could see that feeling validating for her of the level of seriousness that it shows in that film,” Midwig remarked.
Moreover, Taylor articulated that she thought the five-time Grammy winner would want to see the footage once she felt better, but she never asked to see it.
Taylor unveiled, “We did not speak of it, in fact. All she said when the night was over was she put her hand on my arm and she said, ‘Are you OK?’ And I said, ‘I think so. Are you OK?’ That’s how she is.”
Notably, Dion finally saw the scene in the documentary and agreed with Midwig’s feeling that filming her “SPS attack was validating.”
“She was crying when the film ended, and she said, ‘Irene, I think this film could help me.’ I think that she was worried all along for the many years she held the secret of her illness. She was worried people wouldn’t believe her. She was worried that maybe these cancellations of shows, people would just think she was not that committed to her fans,” Taylor concluded by saying.
It is significant to mention that the documentary of the My Heart Will Go On hitmaker, I Am: Celine Dion, is currently available on Prime Video, becoming the platform’s most-watched show ever, per Deadline.