Trending:
- Soleil Moon Frye, 48, tells PEOPLE she “was in tears” directing the new documentary about Aaron Carter and his family
- She notes that she watched many hours of archival family footage to make The Carters: Hurts to Love You documentary film
- The former child-star-turned-director says she hopes the film shines a spotlight on the “universal” experiences of substance abuse and mental health struggles in families
Soleil Moon Frye says that directing her new documentary about the Carter family was a deeply emotional experience.
While speaking exclusively to PEOPLE during a recent interview, Frye discussed what it was like making The Carters: Hurts to Love You, a film about the late Aaron Carter and his four siblings, including Nick Carter. The two-part documentary premieres on April 15 on Paramount+ and uses archival footage as well as present-day interviews to tell the story of how addiction and mental health struggles affected the famous family.
“For me, one of the most painful parts of this journey was really living through their family archives and seeing and witnessing what was happening and what these children were going through at such a young age,” Frye, 48, says of the experience.
“It makes me super emotional thinking about it. There were so many days and nights that I was in tears, and I felt so much for them,” she adds.
The former child star also said that she could often deeply relate to Aaron, who died of a drug-related accidental drowning in 2022 at the age of 34, while watching the footage.
“I started acting when I was five years old. I started Punky [Brewster] when I was around seven, so I was very close to Aaron’s [age when he started performing], and it’s a really surreal world to be a part of. So for me, it really connected to my heart because I know what that feels like to want to make people happy and to also want to be loved,” she explains.
“Also, a lot of times this industry wants to keep you young forever and little forever. And so I know for me, when I went through puberty — and we explored it in [the 2021 documentary] Kid 90, that ultimately it was jarring for people to see me as a teenager,” Frye continues. “And sometimes the industry can be a painful place to go through your most awkward stages. And so the fact that Aaron was then growing up in front of the world and that feeling of wanting to be loved and then not always feeling that love back, there’s a lot of layers to it.”
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Frye also noted that while the film is technically about a family in the spotlight, the themes it covers are “so universal” — particularly because so many families have firsthand experience with addiction and mental health issues.
“At the core, this documentary is really about […] elements that so many of us face in our lives — which is mental health and addiction — and how many people it touches in America and in the world,” she says. “And it happens to be told through this incredibly well-known family that I think so many people have grown up [thinking] that they know because so many of us grew up with them.”
The filmmaker also tells PEOPLE that she hopes the film will ultimately lead to more dialogue and conversation surrounding these issues in more households.
“[The film has] led to incredible conversations in my own home with my family and how we talk about mental health, how we speak about addiction. It’s been a real transformation around how we talk about it here. So I think that creates meaningful change, and that creates the breaking of patterns. And I think that is really meaningful,” she says.
The Carters: Hurts to Love You airs in two parts, and the first installment premieres on April 15 on Paramount+
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
If you or someone you know needs mental health help, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
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