Selena Gomez’s documentary My Mind and Me was filmed over six years and covered her life from 2016 to 2022. During this time, Gomez and Justin Bieber ended their 10-year on-off romance for good, and Gomez had to come to terms with it. with Justin’s quick engagement to Hailey Bieber in July 2018, just months after their split in March of that year. However, Justin is not given much attention in the documentary and is only mentioned by name once.
Selena Gomez spoke about her path to rediscovery
The main theme of My Mind and Me was her journey through mental and physical health. She learned of her diagnosis of bipolar disorder and experienced an episode of psychosis in 2018. However, Justin and Gomez’s overall love life figured prominently in the 2016 and 2019 installments of the film. In part of 2016, during rehearsals for the Revival tour, Gomez mentioned Justin and expressed her desire to be quite independent.
Justin’s final appearance in the documentary came as Gomez was discussing the release of Lose You to Love Me, her breakup song. After that, the documentary was mostly about regaining her mental health and finding her purpose. Gomez has talked about leaving Justin, she told Elle magazine: “I wrote to Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter and said I thought I was ready to just say I was sad. We wrote the song in 45 minutes, which is the fastest song I’ve ever written. This is more than just lost love. “I’m learning to choose myself, to choose life, but I also hope that people can find grace and peace in that.”
Selena continued, “This song is about realizing that you’ve completely lost every part of yourself, just to rediscover yourself,” she continued. “Everything was so public. I was haunted by past relationships that no one wanted to give up. But then I just moved past it and wasn’t afraid anymore.” She added: “I feel like I had to go through the worst heartbreak I’ve ever had and then just forget it all with the flick of a hand, it was really confusing but I just think it was meant to happen and it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Selena Gomez said she wants to be good enough herself
According to Elle, most of the filming for My Mind and Me took place in 2019 and beyond, but the project originally began in 2016 during Gomez’s Revival tour. After the rehearsal, Gomez was very critical of her performance and mentioned that she was afraid that she would not be perceived as independent enough.
That’s when she mentioned a potential collaboration with Justin, which ultimately never came to fruition. Speaking about her record company boss John Janicke, she said: “I don’t know what John thinks, I want to talk to John. I don’t want to disappoint John. I don’t want him to think he signed with some goddamn Disney guy. It also sucks because that whole song. He called me this morning about a song with Justin, like when can I be good enough on my own? When can I be good enough on my own without needing to interact with anyone?”
Gomez did not mention Justin by name again until the end of the film. Director Alek Keshishian included paparazzi footage that showed how the public and press focused on her past relationships. In a 2016 episode, paparazzi asked Gomez personal questions about Justin, which she ignored. Later in the film, when the focus was on Lose You to Love Me, paparazzi footage was shown again.