Friends Theme Writer Began Filming Life for Doc 41 Years Before Death

The name Allee Willis might not be instantly recognizable, but without her, the world as many of us know it wouldn’t exist. She did, after all, co-write “I’ll Be There for You,” the buoyant 1994 pop hit by The Rembrandts that’s perhaps better known as the theme song for the sitcom Friends.

‘The World According to Allee Willis’.

Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.

The artist that the Washington Post called “the most interesting woman you’ve never heard of” is getting her documentary due on Nov. 15 when Magnolia Pictures releases The World According to Allee Willis.

That world encompassed a lot. Willis, who died in 2019 from an aortic aneurysm at age 72, also co-wrote big hits by Earth, Wind & Fire (“September” and “Boogie Wonderland”), The Pointer Sisters (“Neutron Dance”) and The Pet Shop Boys featuring Dusty Springfield (“What Have I Done to Deserve This?).

In addition to being a successful songwriter, she was an art director, a set designer and an internet pioneer. She also won two Grammys and was nominated for a Tony (for the score from The Color Purple) and an Emmy (for the aforementioned Friends theme). And yet, her name has gone largely unsung — until now.

“I’m not gonna be discovered artistically until after I’m gone,” she announces near the beginning of the posthumous documentary’s trailer, which PEOPLE is exclusively debuting.

After revealing she started filming her life in 1978 (some of that footage is featured prominently in the trailer), she says, “I’ve always known that my final art piece would be someone putting together the trail I’ve left behind.”

That someone would be director Alexis Manya Spraic, who was introduced to the work of Willis after her death through their late mutual friend Paul Reubens, who appears in the trailer.

Other VIPs who have benefitted from her artistry or have been influenced by it also pop up, including Patti LaBelle, Mark Cuban and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, who says of Willis, “She’s damn near written half my memory.”

But as is often the case with visionaries, there was darkness. “She was very lonely,” Cyndi Lauper reveals, followed by a bit of insight courtesy of Lily Tomlin: “The world she was presenting was against what she really experienced.” Then Willis herself can be heard saying, “It’s a constant struggle to maintain belief in yourself.”

In the documentary’s promotional notes, Spraic shares some of her own impressions of Willis: “As I came to understand, underneath her dynamic personality and audacious look and lifestyle was a lifelong struggle to accept herself, even as to most around her she appeared to be a beacon of self-expression and self-acceptance.”

“As a young child she was already acutely aware of her failure to meet established gender norms and later in life expectations about her sexuality. Her way of coping was astounding and inspirational — she went so big in expressing her individuality that she found a subversive way to be herself.”

Despite the dark clouds, the overall tone of the trailer is jubilant, befitting a creative genius who specialized in day-glo artistry — a woman who, as one of her admirers points out, was “an explosion of creativity.”

The World According to Allee Willis is in select theaters Nov. 15.