There were moments during filming on I Am: Celine Dion where documentarian Irene Taylor wanted to put the camera down. Invited to make a movie about the Canadian-born music superstar’s life, Taylor, 54, didn’t know that Dion was suffering from Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS ), a rare neurological illness that causes severe muscle spasms . Dion, 56, was diagnosed with the debilitating illness in 2022, but in a new Prime Video documentary, Taylor reveals that the My Heart Will Go On hitmaker didn’t learn the true nature of her affliction until they were well into shooting on the film.
“I did not realize Celine Dion was sick when we started making the film,” Taylor says in a Zoom call from New York City. “Shortly after we started filming, I found out that she was sick. At that time, (her illness) didn’t have a name and she was going through an excruciating time trying to figure out what the problem was .
.. I was shocked at how sick she was.
” With the world shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic in the early part of 2020, and her tour plans delayed, Dion began investigating a variety of health issues that had plagued her for over a decade. The problems had progressively affected her singing voice and her mobility. “There were moments where I cheated and tapped on the microphone like it was the microphone’s fault,” Dion says in the film, explaining how she concealed her illness from fans.
Eventually, she started to medicate herself, taking copious amounts of V.
