Earlier this year, Billie Eilish made her acting debut in Swarm, an Amazon horror-comedy series from Atlanta’s Donald Glover and Janine Nabers. In an interview with Variety, the singer talked about how it all came together and her ambitions for branching out beyond music.
For Billie Eilish, acting has always been a part of her life to some degree. Her parents Maggie Baird and Patrick O’Connell are actors. That placed her in that world as she starred in plays growing up. Cultivating those skills got put on hold when she became one of the biggest musicians in the world. When she was relaxing after her headlining show at last year’s Coachella, Donald Glover came looking for her to re-open that door. When her management told her about the opportunity and told her that it was “a pass” due to her busy schedule, she intervened as acting was always her “dream.”
“I remember being told, ‘There’s this show, but it’s during a period of time where you’re not available. It’s a pass.’ I was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the f— are you talking about? It’s my dream!”
Billie Eilish on Preparing for her Acting Debut in Swarm
Swarm follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), an obsessed fan of a mainstream pop artist who turns into a serial killer as she butchers anyone who insults her favorite artist. For the real pop artist turned actor, she played Eva, a leader of an all-woman cult who promises to get Dre in to see her favorite artist as long as she sticks with the group.
Billie Eilish prepared for her acting debut by getting her mother to be her acting coach. In the end, what helped was her relationship with Fishback. The two found a connection early on when practicing lines together. It ended up translating on screen, even though the musician was caught off guard by the intensity of the scene in which Eva gave Dre a therapy session, which was, in reality, a manipulation to get Dre to spill on her real identity and the murders she had committed.
“She was cracking up, then being really serious, then smiling, then crying. At one point, I broke, and was like, ‘Are you good?’ She just kept going and I was like, ‘Sorry, that was part of it?'”
You can see Billie Eilish making her acting debut in episode four of Swarm. The entire season is available on Amazon Prime Video.