'Britney Vs Spears' Director Erin Lee Carr Wants To Address A Few Things

Erin Lee Carr has had a whirlwind week since the release of her Netflix documentary, Britney vs Spears. After working on the project for almost three years, the fruits of her labor arrived on the streaming platform last Tuesday (September 28) and has since become one of the most-watched films in the United States. The doc also happened to arrive a day before a monumental ruling was made to suspend the entertainer's father, Jamie Spears, from her 13-year conservatorship, a victory for the Free Britney movement and an important marking in her journey towards freedom.

After its debut, iHeartRadio spoke to the director about the 94-minute film, which sees Carr, former Rolling Stone journalist, Jenny Eliscu, as well as a number of key members from her former circle, chronicle how the entertainer was coerced into the legal arrangement — and Carr had a few topics that she wanted to address. As the latest in a line of documentaries and TV specials analyzing the conservatorship, the film's investigation sheds light on how strong of a reaction Spears elicits almost 25 years since her debut by use of paparazzi footage, leaked court documents and, of course, the audio from her bombshell testimony. Separating fact from conspiracy jumpstarted the project and, understandably, remained a task that resulted in delicate and complicated reporting. However, booking interviews with close affiliations proved straight-up difficult, especially when some of the subjects were the very people that the Spears family has blamed for her public troubles.

With the interest around Spears' case only increasing, Carr reflected on the criticism surrounding the film, working on the project amid the Free Britney movement and more.

Where's your head at now that the project is out and everything that's happening in real-time with the case?

I definitely stayed up until 5:00 AM because I flew into Los Angeles, and I was just sort of checking Instagram and Twitter constantly. I love to make things about big subjects and to see the sort of community engagement for a documentary is incredibly fulfilling. Even if there's been some saucy responses, it's been an incredible week.

Can we touch on the saucy responses? You have the die-hard fans checking this out. You have people that don't really understand the idea of a conservatorship. What have you made of the reception to the film?

I totally know where you're going. I mean, art is subjective, and this has been a real learning experience that people have such strong opinions about Britney Spears, but why shouldn't they? I think that there's a lot going on there. It's been a week, but I make films for people. I've been getting hundreds of messages talking about what it means to be a woman and see this. I think that in order to make docs for Netflix, you've got to put the big girl pants on, and that's what has to be done.

Britney's story is such a complex one. Can we talk a little bit about the project's initial agenda?

I was finishing How to Fix a Drug Scandal for Netflix, and I had the opportunity to talk with my executives there about what I wanted to do next. I think that one of the most mysterious mysteries of the last 20 years had been what had happened to Britney Spears, and what did that mean for her current predicament and her future. Somewhat naively, I thought, "Maybe I should take a shot at that and try to understand it, and try to contact everybody involved in the story." It really was about starting from a place of asking the question "Why? What happened?" and letting the story sort of unspool from there. When we got all the documents that had been not known to the public and really understanding how the conservatorship saw Britney, I think then that made me want to work harder every day, seven days a week, late nights in trying to figure this out.

The legal system is heavily involved in this story. What kind of obstacles did you encounter while making the project?

I mean, how many obstacles can I list here? I don't know. It was access, or people saying things and trying to fact-check it. It was really the evolving piece of the story, and that it was one of the biggest stories of this year, and people really getting into it. Ultimately, it was a really satisfying way to spend two and a half years of my life. But I would say that everybody around me, my friends, and family said, "I can't talk to you about Britney Spears anymore. Please, please, anything else."

What were you most surprised to learn from the whole experience?

Seeing Britney as a person that needed a lot of handling from the very beginning. To me, there felt like a lot of misogyny involved in the media portrayal, but then really that Britney was not capable of making decisions about food, clothing, shelter, anything like that. That's what the basis of a conservatorship is, that the person cannot care for themselves. For me, trying to understand what that was based in. I'll never name names, but there have been people in the celebrity age that have dealt with very public battles about their mental health, and yet Britney Spears, with her incredible money earning... Britney Spears is her own industry, that she was one, not well enough to make her own decisions, and therefore was placed in a conservatorship, but she was well enough to do tours like Circus, Femme Fatale, and her mega-successful Las Vegas residency. It just did not add up.

Dan Cogan, the film's executive producer, said that you all made multiple attempts to gain access to Britney. How does one go about reframing that request over time?

I think it's going the routes of her team, which their emails are not hidden. It's about going through her lawyers. I, in the end, spent four days writing a letter to her about what the film was, what it was aiming to be, and then opening the door if she wanted to have an off-the-record conversation. I think that Britney was preparing for the battle of her life, and if an interview with a documentary filmmaker wasn't the first on her priority list, I completely understood, but it's been my stance then and now that my door will forever be open because this is something I will spend my entire life caring about.

One way that the film stands apart from the others is that it features interviews with Sam Lufti and Adnan Galib. Was it difficult to book them? Did you have any apprehension about what they would share? They are often looked at as villains, to an extent.

Yeah, I think this is a great opportunity to be very clear about that. There's been some disturbance about a film talking to people like Adnan and Sam Lufti. One, they both did not want to talk. It took hours of going through what it would be about for them to do it. And two, you're not going to see a co-signing of Sam Lufti's behavior in any way in the film.

It is simply presenting what it was like during that time, which also literally conflicts with what Britney had said in a redacted deposition. I truly don't really understand the criticism. I think people complain when there's no access, and people complain when there's the wrong access. I do think that everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it really wasn't a question. If I were able to book people, what I put it in? Also, Sam Lufti is a very, very, very short amount in the movie, simply because I wasn't clear on those stories. I feel really strongly as a journalist, as a filmmaker, about going to everyone, and yes, being very careful in the edit.

Regardless of the criticism, we haven't heard them speak.

Britney's felt a lot of conflict with these people. For me, when the Adnan interview worked best was that he had a front-row seat into Jamie Spears saying, "I am Britney Spears." When we sit and think about how powerful that is. That transition of Britney's autonomy, or what little autonomy she had at the time to, "My dad is coming in, and is going to start separating." That, to me, was just an incredible point to underline.

The film also puts a spotlight on Lou Taylor. What do you make of her involvement in this scheme?

I got to pull a "I can't talk about this." Unfortunately, I think that it's an evolving situation, and we included what we think was really pertinent inside the film.

Understandable. Let's talk about wrapping up the film because the Free Britney movement is happening in real-time. At what point are you like, "We have to cut it here. This completes the vision that we have."

We worked until the very last second on the film before it went to air. I think that it was a very, very quick turnaround, and films take a lot of effort in online, color, and sound. For us to continue to add to it was quite a complicated endeavor, and much credit to my editors, Tim K. Smith, and Jason Sager. We just had to constantly be evolving as the story evolved. I will never forget trying to finish this film, and then something would change, and you say, "Okay, back in the edit room. Let's go."

The project strays away from Britney's Instagram. Talk to me about that decision to stray away from her social media.

I think that people have such a reaction to her social media, and the enigmatic figure that Britney is on her social. But it never felt clear to me exactly who was running it, how were the photos and videos different from the captions, and so it was really impossible to use it as a primary device, because it just wasn't clear if it was her. I think it's clear now that it's her. At the time of making it, I wanted to stray away from what seems like a bit of an obvious sort of way of doing it. Not saying anything about anybody at all. I'm a documentary filmmaker, so interviews are my primary device in which I put forth information. I have all of her Instagram saved, but I think that, to me, there's a lack of clarity as to the authorship of it.

I love how the film ends. It's simple and powerful. What went into letting Britney wrap up the film?

For me, I always had the intention of letting Britney have the last word in whatever format that would show itself to be. When I heard that testimony and I heard her cry for help. Our film is about documenting her cry for help over and over, and over again. I think that there are other people that are talking about her, but this was Britney Spears saying, "I need the court to help me. I have felt like I have not been heard before." And so I was never going to end the film any other way.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.