Director Of 9-Hour Prince Doco Says Project Was Shelved Because Netflix Were 'Afraid Of His Humanity'

After Netflix shelved a highly anticipated nine-episode, nine-hour documentary about the iconic musician Prince, director Ezra Edelman has addressed the move in a new interview.

Netflix reportedly shelved the project last month. According to Edelman, the video streaming giant and the Prince estate were uninterested in a documentary that showcased the Purple Rain singer’s flaws and “humanity.”

“It’s a joke… I can’t get past this — the short-sightedness of a group of people whose interest is their own bottom line,” Edelman said in a new interview with Pablo Torre Finds Out. “They’re afraid of his humanity.”

In addition to those claims, Edelman alleged that Prince’s team suggested editorial changes rather than mentioning the film’s historical accuracy. Noting that those actions reminded him of Prince’s own reputation as a control freak, he added, “You think I have any interest in putting out a film that is factually inaccurate?”

Controversially, Edelman didn’t cover up the musician’s alleged abusive behaviour.

“People had issues with how he treated people — he was emotionally abusive, he was physically abusive,” he said. However, Edelman also described the nine-hour documentary series as a “gift” that would have allowed viewers to “bathe in his genius” and “confront his humanity.”

Netflix announced that the documentary would no longer be released last month. In July, it was reported that the streaming giant was holding it “hostage.”

Before Netflix’s announcement, The New York Times published an expose on the docuseries (per Consequence Of Sound), reporting that it alleged physical and emotional abuse from Prince. The musician’s estate argued that the documentary “misrepresented” his legacy.

You can watch the interview below.

Edelman is the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind 2016’s O.J.: Made In America. He spent five years working on the project, gathering footage from Prince’s extensive archive and securing interviews with his friends, collaborators, and business partners.

In her book Rememberings, Sinead O’Connor discussed a night she spent with Prince and alleged that he began a “pillow fight” with pillowcases stuffed with items “designed to hurt.”

However, O’Connor later said the alleged incident “didn’t change” her opinion of him as an artist. After his passing, she said she “sobbed” and “felt terribly sorry and sad” for him.

“I sobbed when he died,” O’Connor said, per People. “I just felt terribly sorry and sad for him of the loneliness of his death. The price you pay for being so successful is an awful, aching loneliness, and I think he was terribly lonely, terribly vulnerable.

She added, “The loneliness of fame, I think, was ultimately his undoing.”

In other Prince news, his iconic 1984 drama and musical film Purple Rain is set to hit the stage for an unforgettable musical.