"She was down to earth with me," she said, "so I just wanted to show the woman who showed me herself."

Taylor spoke with The Times the day after the screening in New York. The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Q: Did you know about her diagnosis when you signed up to make this film?

A: I did not know about her illness when I signed on to do this. She had been withholding it from the world, including me. It all made sense once I talked with her. I realized it was a pretty devastating lie that she was telling people for years. Her athleticism on stage did not suggest that she was sick. Yes, she was canceling some shows, but she found ways to fake it.

In the beginning, I didn't know what the film would be about. I didn't really know what my take would be. I just knew it would be a portrait of her. She had asked me, "Is it possible to make a documentary where no one else is in the documentary, it's just me?" That would sound very self-centered coming from a certain kind of person, but it was a genuine question. I told her, "It's certainly possible, but it's going to be a harder road for you because I need more of your time, and I need your authentic self."

But Celine was so straight with me. She never told me to stop filming. In fact, she said, "Don't talk to me about whether you can do something or not, because it'll throw me off. You're here in my home, you've got carte blanche, do what you need to do." That is a profound tool to give me. She did not get involved in my editing. She did not ask me to change anything. It is a rare opportunity to be able to make a film about a public figure and have that much agency.

Q: At what point did you learn about the illness?

A: I got a call saying, "Could we talk about this?" It was a call with someone from the record company and a couple of people from her management team and they basically said, "She's not well, and we don't have a name for it." There wasn't consensus about it. I had that information going into the first day of shooting, and then it was like a fire hose at me. "Seventeen years, I've been lying to everybody. I am feeling so guilty." I was so overwhelmed that first day. I think she had been holding it in for a long time. Over the first half of filming, I was watching her flail, not knowing what she had, and the doctors not knowing what to do about it. Then over time, there was consensus, and she was very relieved when she got the diagnosis, even though it's an orphan disease. She said to me, "I don't want to have a rare disease. No one knows how to fix it."

When she got that formal diagnosis, that is when she wanted to tell the world, and the way she wanted to do that was through Instagram — just tell people directly. So I pivoted in my filmmaking and decided how to incorporate her telling the world into the story.

Q: With celebrities and public figures, it can be hard to get them off of their narrative. How did you find her as an interview subject?

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