says her Tourette’s documentary is ‘one of the hardest things’ she has ever filmed.
The former reality star said she has a new-found respect for documentary-maker after recording her film, due to how challenging it was.
In what will be the TV presenter’s debut documentary – set to air on Channel 4 – Britain’s Tourette’s Mystery will see Scarlett travel around the country to uncover potential causes of the condition.
Scarlett, 31 – who first gained popularity on Channel 4’s Gogglebox before winning I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! in 2016 – developed sudden onset tics when she was a teenager.
She said: ‘I remember being a young teen and standing in front of the mirror for hours, just staring in the mirror and trying to get my face to go straight and trying to stop the tics.
‘It was just really scary. It’s scary as a teenager anyway, because your body’s changing, and you have all these hormones, but when you feel like you’re not in control of them, I just remember feeling like, “God, is this ever gonna stop? Am I ever gonna be in control again?”.’
She added that she suddenly became aware of lots of articles about young girls getting sudden onset tics, and her algorithm on TikTok was ‘loads of young girls with tics’, leaving her questioning why ‘no one is talking about it’ because it sounds like it’s ‘a bit of a pandemic in itself.’
‘The big thing when I had tics was that I felt alone, I didn’t really know any other young girls with it so I just thought, at least if other parents and families and people can watch this, and realise that they’re not alone, then that can only be a good thing,’ she shared.
Scarlett, who admitted she watches Louis’ episodes on repeat, said the legendary documentary-maker gave her some tips on how to be a ‘good investigative journalist’ after meeting at a Halloween party.
She described him as ‘really nice’ and complimented her by saying she is ‘very warm with people’ and ‘being genuine comes across.’
‘He said, no matter what, just be true to yourself, then when you’re interviewing people that will come across because people can sense fakery, so just be yourself.’
On why documentaries are important for people to watch, Scarlett added that they show what life is like ‘outside this bubble’, highlighting that awful things happen and change needs to happen.’
However, making her own TV special, even though it’s only an hour long, took ‘months and months’ of filming as she felt like she had to ‘constantly work at it’ to find answers to the questions she had.
‘But I realised that actually, it’s not about sort of digging, it’s about making sure that the viewer is understanding everything, and them being able to get their opinion across. So that was definitely difficult.’
Scarlett also watched many Stacey Dooley documentaries in preparation for her own, saying that while she’s ‘tried to be myself,’ she also wanted to ‘learn from them and take their bits.’
The Geordie lass wants to continue making documentaries, particularly on the LGBTQ+ community – because although things are getting better, ‘by no means is everything fine and dandy’.
She also wants to explore the stigma attached to loneliness following the pandemic.
Britain’s Tourette’s Mystery will be broadcast on July 19.
