Soleil Moon Frye‘s dedication to uplifting Angel Carter Conrad‘s voice in The Carters: Hurts to Love You comes from a place of understanding.
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Frye, 48, reflected on how her days as a child star influenced her work behind the camera, saying, “I was so fortunate growing up that I really loved being on set. I loved growing up in this colorful world — and I also really had a sense of family and my childhood. I had so much love in my life and exquisite friends that I grew up with — and so many have grown up to have these incredible families and flourishing and exquisite careers.”
Frye noted that not everyone “made it through” the experience of acting as a child, especially if they lacked substantive support.
“Some we lost at such young ages. So I felt this deep connection to this story because I had been a part of witnessing it through my own friends,” she continued. “I actually met Aaron [Carter] when he was a little boy. He came and worked on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and he was so vivacious, full of life and had this beautiful energy. It really was ingrained in my heart always and I was introduced to Angel a few years ago. It was the first time I met her and I had heard stories about the heartbreaking stories around her family.”
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She continued: “I remember meeting Angel and falling in love. I was so blown away by her courage and her strength and her grace and the way in which she was taking pain and turning [it] into purpose and that she was really letting the light into those broken parts of what she had been through. She had [experienced] so much tragedy in her life. When I met her, we went on this journey of this incredible friendship and it felt like we had known each other forever. I really wanted to create a safe space for her to be able to share her story.”
The Carters: Hurts to Love You, which premieres on Tuesday, April 15, highlights Nick Carter, Aaron, Angel, 37, Leslie Carter and Bobbie Jean Carter‘s difficult upbringings. Nick, 45, and Aaron’s rise to stardom — and the toll it took on them and their siblings — is the backdrop for a documentary that attempts to destigmatize mental health and addiction.
“For me, archival [footage] is such an incredible backbone to the stories that I want to be a part of. When I met Angel, I saw in her bathroom there [were] just piles of home videos that she had never watched and there [were] photo albums,” Frye, who also directed Kid 90, shared. “At the core was this universal story that is so important to me, which is to share our stories around mental health and addiction and the struggles that so many of us face in our own families and through our friends. I could really identify with Aaron’s love and also with the loss.”
While the series focuses on the plights of one singular family, Frye wanted to use the two-part documentary to pull back the curtain on a larger conversation surrounding mental health and addiction.
“So many of our favorite musicians, icons, actors and athletes have had so many trials and tribulations and there are so many that we’ve lost. You wondered to what point do some of our favorite performers go to before they break. That is something that also is global in the sense that someone can want to really please their family. Someone could be an athlete that is pushed,” she added. “I just think that in this world we’re facing this global crisis, which is ultimately around mental health and addiction. We have to start sharing our stories. I really hope that through the lens of the Carters, that people will connect to some part of their own lives and experiences.”
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For Frye, the project was about honoring “the memory of those that we’ve lost.” (Angel’s twin brother, Aaron, died at age 34 in November 2022. Her sister Leslie died at age 25 in 2012 and sister Bobbie Jean passed away in December 2023 at age 41.)
“I hope that people see how we can take pain and turn it into purpose. The strength that Angel has and how to break these generational patterns and dysfunction — that was so profound for me to witness through her and Nick sharing their story. We have this opportunity to break those cycles,” Frye continued. “I really hope that people leave with a deeper understanding and empathy. So often we make assumptions and so many people have tried to share their story. So for them to be able to own their own narrative, for Angel to be able to speak her truth and to also hear from Aaron from the other side — that was so important to me.”
She concluded: “There’s so much more to do and there’s so many more stories to be shared. I really hope that people watch this, have conversations with their families and speak to their loved ones and just have a deeper empathy for each other. I would say there is progress and I want to keep being a part of sharing these stories that I feel are so important because they’re so universal.”
The Carters: Hurts to Love You starts streaming Tuesday, April 15, on Paramount+.
