Demi Lovato says she’s ready to tell the truth
“Dancing with the Devil” filled with fresh admissions
Demi Lovato woke up legally blind in an intensive care unit after the July 2018 drug overdose that nearly killed her. It took two months to recover enough sight to read a book. Blind spots made it nearly impossible to see head-on, so she peered at her phone through her peripheral vision and typed using voice notes.
“It was interesting how fast I adapted,” she said. “I didn’t leave myself time to really feel sad about it. I just was like, how do I fix it?”
Lovato, the 28-year-old singer, songwriter, actress and budding activist who has been in show business since she was 6, is one of the most resilient pop cultural figures of her time. She got her start on kids’ TV and made the tricky leap to adult stardom, releasing six albums, serving as a judge on “The X Factor,” acting on “Glee” and “Will & Grace” and amassing 100 million Instagram followers — all while managing an eating disorder, drug addiction, coming out as queer and the pressure of being famous.
She recounts her relapse and overdose unblinkingly in the documentary “Dancing With the Devil,” which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and will be released on Youtube in four episodes starting Tuesday. A song with the same name anchors a new album, “Dancing With the Devil … The Art of Starting Over,” due April 2.
Lovato’s film, which follows “Simply Complicated” in 2017, is 90-plus minutes of interviews directed by Michael Ratner
— and doesn’t gloss over the ugliest realities. She reveals excruciating details about a history of sexual assault, self-harm and family trauma.
“Dancing With the Devil” is filled with fresh admissions that betray previous obfuscations. Her overdose came after six years of sobriety, during which Lovato felt increasingly hemmed in by the measures her longtime managers took to help her stay on track. It caused three strokes, a heart attack and organ failure. She had pneumonia from asphyxiating on her vomit; she suffered brain damage from the strokes, and has lasting vision problems. The drug dealer who brought her heroin that night sexually assaulted her, then left her close to death.
The Demi Lovato perched in front of her laptop for two lengthy video interviews from her new home in Los Angeles in February and early March barely resembled the pop star narrating her recent history in the documentary, though she spoke candidly with the same disarming charm.
Lockdown, like the recovery time following her overdose, forced Lovato to take a breath.
In early 2020, Lovato had a new team and returned to performing at the Grammys and the Super Bowl. But re-entering the pop mainstream after a very public overdose on hard drugs wasn’t a guarantee.
There would be no album or tour in 2020.
But the changes Lovato has undergone have put her on a different course. She’s increasingly devoted herself to activism, meditation and, despite her vision difficulties, reading. “This last year provided me so much self-growth and was so beneficial to my spiritual evolution,” she said.