Katy Perry Equates Divorce to a ‘Scar’ as Release of Her New Film Approaches
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Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) — Although popular songstress Katy Perry might sing of “Teenage Dreams,” her new documentary film indicates her life hasn’t always been picture-perfect.
The singer has had a year of highs and lows. She embarked on a world tour and released two hit songs all while experiencing a very public divorce from actor Russell Brand.
Perry spoke to Elizabeth Vargas on Good Morning America about her new movie, Part of Me, which opens July 5.
Perry, 27, told Vargas that she believes that her music resonates with people because she is honest: “I’m not singing about how fabulous everything is.”
It has been suggested that her divorce from Brand is the inspiration behind her latest music and an important part of the film that she chose to include.
“It’s like a scar,” she said. “Sometimes you look on your legs or your arms and you see this scar. And sometimes they’re bad and it reminds you of the thing that you learned or what not to do again. But you needed that reminder. And these are valuable things. They’re life lessons that help me in the future.”
The film offers insight beyond the divorce to issues her Evangelical family had with her on-stage persona. “Katy, I’m not going to watch you if you have half your clothes off,” Perry’s mom says in the flick.
Although her parents are deeply religious, Perry refers to herself as “open.”
“But I still have a moral compass, I hope. And I still try to make all of my decisions with integrity and respect,” she said.
“I know if I get out of line, either my grandmother or my sister will pop me.”
Perry’s close relationship with her sister, Angela, is shown in the movie. She even helped her sister plan her wedding while her own marriage was on the rocks.
“I told her I was going to be this one day,” she said. “And I said I was going to take her along with me. And I’ve taken her along with me. And she’s kind of like my warden. She’s the one that has that invisible leash you see mothers and the children in the malls, they’re tied to and they kind of yank when the kid gets out of line? That’s my sister.”
The songstress wanted her audience to see a real side of her and didn’t remove scenes that showed her in an unflattering light.
“I’m OK with showing that real side and stripping that down. I even like the scenes where I left in the movie that maybe weren’t under the most flattering lights and I looked obviously exhausted and tired. I just wanted to kind of show that like really at the end of it all I was just a normal girl, pretty plane Jane, who had an idea, planted a seed and watered it.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio