Montage of Heck documentary helped Frances Bean get closer to her father

Frances Bean Cobain looks a lot like her late father Kurt Cobain, and she has lived in the shadow of his myth, but because he died when she was only 20 months old, she never really knew him. That sad fact can’t be changed, but Montage of Heck director Brett Morgen said her involvement in the film helped her understand him in a deeper way.

“I went to meet with Frances, and when I walked into the room, she shook my hand and said, ‘I already know you more than I know my father,'” Brett told People. “At that moment, I realized that we had an opportunity to do something much bigger than a biopic or movie for the fans. There was an opportunity to bridge a gap between a father and a daughter.”

Franes Bean told him straight up that “the world doesn’t need another retelling of the myth of Kurt Cobain,” and Morgen took that advice to heart. After she viewed the film, Frances wasn’t disappointed. “She looked at me and said, ‘You made the film that I was hoping you were going to make and in a way brought me as close to Kurt as I’m likely ever to get.'”

Frances explained that “the film provided a lot more factual information about my father – not just tall tales that were misconstrued, misremembered, rehashed, retold 10 different ways. It was factual evidence of who my father was as a child, as a teenager, as a man, as a husband, as an artist. It explored every single aspect of who he was as a human being.”

Still, thanks to DNA, she carries part of her father with her always. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Frances Bean said she looks and acts so much like her father that it seems uncanny to his fellow Nirvana bandmates. “They had what I call the “K. C. Jeebies,” which is when they see me, they see Kurt,” she said of a visit. “They look at me, and you can see they’re looking at a ghost. They were all getting the K. C. Jeebies hardcore. Dave said, “She is so much like Kurt.” They were all talking amongst themselves, rehashing old stories I’d heard a million times. I was sitting in a chair, chain-smoking, looking down like this [affects total boredom]. And they went, “You are doing exactly what your father would have done.”