Joan Jett on the upcoming documentary 'Bad Reputation': "It speaks to what’s happening now and what’s been happening"

Joan Jett on the upcoming documentary 'Bad Reputation': "It speaks to what’s happening now and what’s been happening"

Later this month, Magnolia Pictures will roll out the documentary 'Bad Reputation' which chronicles the Godmother of Punk, Joan Jett's prolific music career, especially focused on her career period with The Runaways and The Blackhearts.

Promising "a wild ride as Jett and her close friends tell you how it really was in the burgeoning ’70s punk scene," the film covers the harassment and misogyny Jett experienced early on in her career. And while it wasn’t specifically tied into the #MeToo movement, it arrives at a time when the discourse around women's empowerment and harassment is at a peak.

Speaking about the documentary, in a recent interview with Billboard, Jett discussed the relevance of the documentary in the current socio-political landscape.

“The timing was just organic,” Jett said in the interview. “We’ve been filming this for, I don’t know, seven years? Had the terminology and the lexicon [of the #MeToo movement] happened while we were filming, it would have been in there."

“It was before all this stuff broke at the end of last year. We had finished the movie and started editing. But it speaks to what’s happening now and what’s been happening. The light is starting to shine on all this harassment, but it’s certainly not done.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Jett also touched upon replacing Cherie Currie as the frontwoman of The Runaways after the later quit the band in 1977. Jett, who had previously shared vocal duties with Currie, took over lead vocals full time until The Runaways disbanded in 1979. Jett said that the group was ‘either going to completely break up as a band’ or she had to step up. “But there were a lot of things I knew,” she added.

“I knew I wasn’t Cherie. I knew I wasn’t a blonde bombshell. I knew I wasn’t the one people wanted to look at. And that’s a weird feeling. I’m getting emotional, I don’t know why. What else could I do? Either end it or plow ahead and not worry.”

'Bad Reputation' is set for release on September 28. The documentary is directed by Kevin Kerslake ('As I Am: The Life And Times Of DJ AM') and penned by Joel Marcus. Watch the trailer for the documentary below.


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