In a new documentary premiering Tuesday at the Toronto International Film Festival, Canadian singer Alanis Morissette opens up about being sexually assaulted as a teenager.
“I never talk about this,” Morissette says in the movie Jagged, according to The Washington Post. “It took me years in therapy to even admit there had been any kind of victimization on my part.”
“I would always say I was consenting, and then I’d be reminded like ‘Hey, you were 15, you’re not consenting at 15.’ Now I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, they’re all pedophiles. It’s all statutory rape.’”
At the time, the legal age of consent in Canada was 14 (it was raised to 16 in 2008) but it does not apply when there was a relationship of trust, authority or dependency.
Morissette did not name the men but said she told “a few people” at the time “and it kind of fell on deaf ears.
“It would usually be a stand-up, walk-out-of-the-room moment.”
The Ottawa native released Jagged Little Pill globally in 1995 after putting out two dance-pop albums in Canada in the early ‘90s. The groundbreaking collaboration with songwriter-producer Glen Ballard – which spawned hits like “You Oughta Know," "Ironic" and “Hand In My Pocket” – became one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Morissette cooperated with the making of the documentary, which will air on HBO this fall, but has declined to attend the premiere at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall.
“Of course I wish Alanis could be there,” director Alison Klayman told the Post, adding that she did not want to speculate on Morissette’s issues with the final cut. “It was a privilege to make this film and I’m really proud of it.”
Morissette’s rep declined to comment on the story.
Earlier this year, the 47-year-old singer talked to Audible about the doc. "There's footage in this that I've never even seen. As Alison's been working on it, I'm saying, ‘I don't want to see anything until the end.’ Because I think 50 percent of what she found in my archives is footage I've never even seen, some of it I don't even remember having been there.
"So it'll be entertaining I think, fingers crossed."