Courtney Love was notably absent from the Tuesday premiere of her new documentary, Antiheroine, at the Sundance Film Festival.
The rock star and actor, 62, was expected to attend the opening screening of the film, which traces the beginnings of her relationship with Nirvana’s late Kurt Cobain and her creative drive to become one of the world’s most influential and divisive rock stars in modern history.
However, when introducing the movie, the festival’s director, Eugene Hernandez, announced that “unfortunately [Love’s] not able to make it to tonight’s screening,” according to People magazine.
“We’re really gutted that Courtney couldn’t make it tonight to celebrate this moment with us all,” the film’s co-director Edward Lovelace added, describing the film as “so unfiltered, so truthful.”
“But we just wanted to say it’s been the greatest of privileges to be invited into Courtney’s personal space to make such an intimate, honest film with someone we have so much love for,” he said, thanking Love for “trusting us to — alongside her — tell her story and allowing us to experience the last three years.”
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The Independent has contacted Love’s representative for comment.
Love remains a defining figure in modern music. Through her work with Hole, she fused punk and alternative rock with pop hooks and a caustic lyrical edge, producing era-shaping songs such as “Doll Parts,” “Miss World” and “Celebrity Skin.”
She was married to Kurt Cobain until his death in 1994 and later found success on screen, earning a Golden Globe nomination for her role in Miloš Forman’s 1996 black comedy The People vs. Larry Flynt.
“Now sober and set to release new music for the first time in over a decade, Courtney is ready to reveal her story, unfiltered and unapologetic,” reads the documentary’s logline.
Antiheroine may come as a surprise to many Love fans as she’s been teasing a memoir — and its tumultuous journey to publication.
Love said in 2014 that an existing draft of her book was “a disaster” and “a nightmare,” and that she had “never wanted to write a book in my entire life.” In 2017, she said that she was working with her second ghostwriter on the book, after deciding the first draft “was too tell-all [and] too much in a kind of sleazy way.” Finally, in 2022, she announced on Instagram that the book was finally completed, though a memoir has yet to be published.
Antiheroine producer Julia Nottingham said in a previous statement: “Courtney has waited a long time to tell her story, in her own words and it’s deeply important to all of us at Dorothy St. Pictures that strong, female-forward stories find the audiences they deserve.”
