{"id":491903,"date":"2019-11-06T10:22:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T17:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=908550"},"modified":"2019-11-06T10:22:42","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T17:22:42","slug":"lil-peep-film-directors-talk-docs-toughest-moments-and-interviews-as-therapy-sessions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/lil-peep-film-directors-talk-docs-toughest-moments-and-interviews-as-therapy-sessions\/","title":{"rendered":"Lil Peep Film Directors Talk Doc\u2019s Toughest Moments and Interviews as \u2018Therapy Sessions\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For those who were close to Gustav Elijah \u00c5hr, the release of documentary film Everybody\u2019s Everything<\/em><\/a> next week may be as difficult as it is cathartic. \u00c5hr, who performed as Lil Peep<\/a>, died of a drug overdose<\/a> on tour in 2017 shortly after celebrating his 21st birthday; the film spotlights dozens of friends, family members, and colleagues sharing beloved memories of the young rapper, who\u2019d amassed millions of fans with his uniquely vulnerable songs and harbored a personal ambition to \u201crevolutionize music.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directors Sebastian Jones and Ramez Silyan whittled down hundreds of hours of footage to a two-hour film accompanied by Peep\u2019s music and an instrumental score composed by Patrick Stump, one of Peep\u2019s musical inspirations. Executive produced by Terrence Malick, Peep\u2019s mother Liza Womack, and Sarah Stennett \u2014 head of First Access Entertainment, the company that\u2019d signed Peep to a multi-year record deal<\/a> before his death \u2014 Everybody\u2019s Everything<\/em> premieres in select theaters on November 15th, with special fan screenings taking place across the U.S. on November 12th. Rolling Stone<\/em> spoke to Jones and Silyan ahead of the release about the film\u2019s difficult subject, its release in the midst of a lawsuit involving two of the executive producers<\/a>, and the purpose of its narrative.<\/p>\n

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How did this documentary come about and how\u2019d you both get involved?
<\/strong>SEBASTIAN JONES: After Gus died, First Access and Liza were talking about doing a documentary, and Liza wanted to bring Terrence Malick in to make sure things were done right and went smoothly. He\u2019s a family friend of the Womack family and has known Jack, Gus\u2019s grandfather, for many years. I worked with Terry for six years before working on this film and he brought me on to direct.<\/p>\n

RAMEZ SILYAN: I had done music videos with Gus, and I was also just filming for him on tour. It\u2019s very rare to become friends with the artist you work with \u2014 you usually stay at arm\u2019s length \u2014 but we became closer and when he passed [and] I heard they wanted to do a doc, I felt a calling to it. I felt attached. I wanted to help spread his legacy. The film was financed by Liza as the Peep estate and FAE in co-production and they brought us on.<\/p>\n

The unexpected death of a young artist is a tough subject. What was it like to delve into that?
<\/strong>RS: I did over 145 interviews and it was incredibly difficult because the interviews, being such fresh wounds, were like therapy sessions \u2014 for myself as well, because I\u2019d learn new things and start to form this patchwork about this person who the subjects knew intimately. Someone said \u2014 and I don\u2019t think it made this into the film \u2014 [that] Gus had a way of making everybody feel like they were a hero in their own story. That was the most affecting thing I found. The goal of the film was to try to show that feeling.<\/p>\n

How\u2019d you get people to open up for interviews?
<\/strong>RS: It was extremely conversational in nature. Some people were worried about discussing the drug use, but we made it very clear that this was being done with his family and everything was okay to talk about. And that\u2019s not to say that there weren\u2019t things Liza didn\u2019t end up disliking \u2014 there\u2019s one sequence \u2014 well, not everybody loves the whole film, basically, but it was done with respect. The toughest interview was probably Liza. You\u2019re speaking to this incredible woman who just lost her son. You\u2019ll never quite understand it; you\u2019ll never relate. She told me, \u2018It\u2019s the club that nobody wants to be a part of.\u2019 That broke my heart.<\/p>\n

How much of the project didn\u2019t make it into the final film?
<\/strong>SJ: It being a documentary, the world was our oyster in terms of the material we had. There was an endless amount of social media material, videos that Liza had personally gathered from VHS tapes of him as a kid, all the tour footage from all the videographers. The initial assembly was around six hours, probably. The guiding principle as I was cutting it down was: What strengthens the film\u2019s thesis? You have to make hard decisions like that. If there are things that don\u2019t really fit into that, they kind of fall away. The things that tell that story float to the top.<\/p>\n

How much input did the three people listed as executive producers \u2014 Terrence, Liza, and FAE\u2019s Sarah Stennent \u2014 have in the film?
<\/strong>SJ: Everybody had input, and in a film like this, you\u2019re telling a person\u2019s story and it\u2019s a really serious responsibility. I had creative control and made decisions about what I thought felt the most true. But they were all very involved, Liza especially. She was a researcher on the film as well and gave us access to all kinds of stuff from Gus\u2019s computer [and] messages on his phone.<\/p>\n