ENTERTAINMENTSinger Sarah Cracknell Admits Melania Trump's Film Made Her 'Feel Sick': 'I Actually Couldn't Bear It'
Sarah Cracknell initially tuned in to 'Melania' because she thought it would be 'funny.'
June 9 2026, Published 6:55 p.m. ET
Sarah Cracknell, the lead singer of English indie pop band Saint Etienne, told The Times in a wide-ranging interview that the Amazon documentary Melania made her physically ill.
In the cultural Q&A feature, the 59-year-old singer shared her media preferences, including watching trash TV, dancing to Whitney Houston and her emotional reaction to Call Me by Your Name, the 2017 film starring Timothée Chalamet.
Singer Sarah Cracknell felt watching 'Melania' was a waste of time.
When asked about a project she regretted watching, she cited the widely panned documentary film about Melania Trump.
"I wasted an evening watching it. I thought it was going to be funny, but I actually couldn't bear it. It made me feel sick,” she admitted of the Brett Ratner-directed box office bomb.
The musician admitted she felt 'sick' watching the first lady's film.
Professional film critics have given the documentary near record low scores, with a 6 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6 out of 100 on Metacritic.
Film critic Peter Travers called the two-hour film a "sycophantic infomercial disguised as a documentary," noting the absence of any unguarded or authentic moments.
Critics placed it in the tradition of infamous propaganda or vanity films. It is frequently criticized not for being poorly shot — as Ratner was given a massive $75 million budget to produce and market it — but for failing to fulfill the basic investigative purpose of a documentary.
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'Melania' was panned by critics.
Variety said, “It feels like it's been stitched together out of the most innocuous outtakes from a reality show. There's no drama to it. It should have been called Day of the Living Tradwife."
Melania was also a historic box office bomb, holding the title of the most expensive documentary ever made, yet collapsing financially due to staggering acquisition and promotional fees.
It finished its run recovering less than a quarter of its $75 million total price tag.
Because of its poor theatrical performance, the film was pushed to Amazon Prime Video just weeks after its theatrical release.
The movie cost $75 million to make.
Media experts viewed the massive $40 million purchase as a strategic corporate play to build goodwill with the incoming Trump administration.
While Cracknell generally keeps a low profile on direct daily political commentary, interviews tracking her band's history have historically referenced the Trump era with disdain, once describing his political rise as a time when Trump was "a deranged glint in Middle America's eye."
