New Doc 'Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sarah' Explores the Dark Side of Fandom

Imagine having your personal information rifled though, details of your life accessed by unknown persons for unknown and possibly malevolent purposes, your work stolen and disseminated without your knowledge or consent, and even medical information about your family shared with strangers... and all of it being done by someone using your name and building relationships with people you don't know – people who believe they are enjoying a friendship with you, along with all the intimate conversations that friendship can entail.

Tegan herself – the real one – is at the heart of the documentary, participating in outreach to fans who are victimized, embarrassed, and even traumatized. But even here there's a dark shadow of doubt: Could one (or more) of the people Tegan is talking to be the culprit?

EDGE caught up with Tegan Quin via a Zoom call to hear more about what went on behind the scenes, how she's dealt with the fallout of Fake Tegan's actions, and whether all of this is simply the price of fame or something far more sinister and tragic.

EDGE: Have there been any new developments in this mystery since the doc finished filming?

Tegan Quin: When we wrapped filming and were pretty close to locking the film, there were some developments. We feel pretty confident that we know who Fake Tegan is. There was a lot of debate about, "Do we unlock the film to put that in?" I don't want to speak for our director, Erin Lee Carr, but I was just sitting with her in an interview and heard her say a version of this: Our goal here wasn't to ruin anyone's lives. Also, Fake Tegan has a lot in common with their victims, in that they were likely, if it is this person is who we think it is, young and queer.

EDGE: You were so young, yourself, when all this started. How has it changed the way you interact with the world at large, not to mention your fans?

Tegan Quin: When this all started, we were on the precipice of a massive shift in our career. We were about to head out on the road and have our biggest single ever with "Closer." Massive things happened over the course of the next couple years – the Oscars [where Tegan and Sara performed in 2015, having contributed a song to "The Lego Movie"], and "Glee" [where their song "Closer" was featured on an episode in 2013], and touring with Katy Perry [on her "Prismatic" tour in 2014]. It's not to say that Fake Tegan wasn't plaguing us, but it was afterwards – like, 2015, 16, 17, 18 – when we were like, "Wow, our career's changed, the world's changed. Fan relationships to us have changed." That parasocial relationship was scary to us. We started to carry security, and I think we did start to pull back from the pop thing.

I don't give Fake Tegan all the credit or all the blame for that, but I think Fake Tegan was definitely one of the first major experiences in our career that made us think that being an incredibly famous person is not very healthy for you.

EDGE: It must have been very strange to be pulled back into relationships that had faded away or run their course, and now, to untangle all this, you're speaking with people from the past, as well as with various fans. What was that like?

Tegan Quin: There was a spectrum of emotions and feelings going into this, talking to all the different victims. I feel so bad for everyone. And that's complicated, because in some cases, they've gone online looking for my personal information, looking for my phone number and my email. It's a complicated thing to say, "I'm so sorry that happened to you," but also, like, why do we go on message boards and look for celebrities' personal information? People were trading in stolen songs and doctored photos and personal information.

EDGE: If you were to have one of those conversations face to face with fake Tegan, what would you want to say to them?

Tegan Quin: Well, I think Erin and I spoke to that person multiple times, thinking they weren't Fake Tegan – so, we were catfished again. As to your question, I think I said it, because when I was speaking with this person, I was like, "I'm doing this because I want the truth to come out. I want the victims to know that they aren't stupid for falling for this. I want people to have compassion for artists, but also for the victims." And I was like, "Ultimately, I want Fake Teagan to have an opportunity to say how they feel. I have compassion for them, too. I have a feeling they were probably very young, and likely going through their own thing."

I said all these things to this person. [As to whether they really are Fake Tegan], I could be wrong. There's a margin of error there. But I think, in a weird way, I have closure.

EDGE: That's such a remarkable level of compassion.

Tegan Quin: I don't know whether I'm gonna go crazy down the road and finally get angry. It's taken a lot for me even to admit that it was complicated to talk to some of these victims, especially the ones that were involved in the incest fan pages and those kinds of things. I mean, those are parts of the fandom that I've always been disgusted by. But it's hard, because I've met some of the people who used to write the fan fiction, and they're really nice.

The fact that the Tegan and Sarah fan base is so passionate and so supportive of each other, and of us, is amazing – but there's a dark side to that. Many of [the fans] were great, but there were also a lot of people who were saying awful, cruel, untrue things about us, and our team, and my girlfriend, and my mom, and tearing us to shreds. And then talking about gross things and sexualizing us in a way that felt really fucked up. Like, the world is fucked up enough. We were dealing with a very male-dominated, hetero industry, dealing with reviews and articles that were misogynist and sexist and homophobic, and then our fans were doing it to us online. It was – it made me angry. Yeah, I have a lot of compassion for everyone, even those people, but all of these things add up to why I'm like, "Don't try to be famous."

I think we have a perfect career now: Just fly under the radar, no paparazzi, no stalkers.

"Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara" premieres on Hulu on Oct. 18.