Russell Brand has cancelled all appearances at this year’s SXSW festival, which opens on Friday with a screening of a documentary about his life. Brand had been involved for many years in the production of Brand: A Second Coming, which is directed by Dig!’s Ondi Timoner, and due to support its premiere this evening.
But writing on his website today, Brand says that although he’s been “told the film is good … for me watching it was very uncomfortable.”
Ondi is a very beautiful person and a director of peerless integrity, I suppose what I didn’t consider was that in letting go of the film, I was agreeing to be the subject of a biography. Posthumously this is a great honor but while you’re alive, oddly intrusive and melancholy.
You’d think a narcissist would like nothing more than talking about themselves and their “rags to riches”, “hard luck” story but actually, it felt like, to me, my life was hard enough the first time round and going through it again was painful and sad.
He also said he would be cancelling his planned keynote interactive speech, scheduled for later in the festival. “I apologise sincerely to the organisers of SXSW for my non-attendance,” he wrote.
