Lil Nas X on His Toronto Documentary ‘Long Live Montero’ and ‘Making the Ceiling Unreachable for Where We Can Go as Black Queer People’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic On the eve of heading up to Canada this week to attend the Toronto Film Festival, where his documentary “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero” has its world debut Saturday night, pop superstar Lil Nas X was playing it nonchalant about stepping outside the music realm a bit to be the center of a splashy event in the movie world. “Not really,” he answers, when asked whether it means anything special to him to have a gala premiere at North America’s biggest film event. “I mean, I’m excited to go there and to see what people think, and also, I’ve never been to a film festival, so maybe I’ll meet people and and build some future relationships.
That can be cool.” His real sense of excitability is reserved for the impact he thinks the film might have out in the world, and how those who identify with him might relate to it.
He grows more passionate when the question arises about whether the doc might serve to elevate issues of representation. “I truly hope so,” Nas says. “I know in my lifetime, while I’m here, I’m going to do my best to make the ceiling unreachable to where we can go as Black queer people.
And I mean unreachable as, like, it can go above and beyond. I feel like we live in a generation where Black queer people really control culture, and they’re helping really take the world to the next level.
