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.