2026 is set to be Charli XCX‘s year (again!)
Portrait by Charlotte Hadden
The British singer’s ascent continues as she turns her attention to film.
No one could have predicted Brat Summer. Not even its creator. It’s not only the album’s commercial accomplishments that were so impressive – Grammys, Brits, number ones and over 3.5 million global sales – but its wider impact too. Sure, not even “Kamala is brat” could secure Harris the highest spot in political office, but will anyone ever describe green as ‘slime’ ever again? Doubtful.
Charli herself has observed that, like much of the best art, it was removing the need for validation and traditional markers of merit that led to Brat’s success, a record that received 95 on Metacritic, making it the number one album of 2024 on the score-aggregating site. The reviews were as ecstatic as the sales; Pitchfork decreed the album as “imperious and cool, nuanced and vulnerable,” while the Guardian gave it 5 out of 5 stars.
But as Brat steamrollered across the globe, crushing all pop pretenders in its path, Charli was experiencing serious burnout. She wondered, post-Brat, if she’d ever be able to make music again. “I was stuck, I was empty, I was barren,” she told readers of her Substack last month. “I was running on the spot in a different kind of way. I couldn’t really even listen to music without feeling depressed. Everything felt monotonous and boring, even if it wasn’t.” She was, she wrote, “more inspired by film”.
Fortuitously then, while in the mire of feeling uninspired by music, creative countenance was lurking elsewhere. In December 2024, Saltburn director Emerald Fennell texted, wondering if Charli might read an adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 windswept moors melodrama Wuthering Heights and possibly write a single for it. The singer came back with, “[how about] an album?” And now Charli is the soundtrack composer for possibly one of the most talked about films of 2026, starring Jacob Elordi, Margot Robbie, Owen Cooper and, no doubt, Fennell’s keen eye for many a memeable movie moment.
THE MOMENT | A24 | A FILM BY AIDAN ZAMIRI, BASED ON AN ORIGINAL IDEA BY CHARLI XCX
Released on 13 February, the film arrives with 12 new songs from Charli, two of which have recently dropped; the gorgeously gothic Chains Of Love and the gloriously eerie House, featuring the voice and viola of John Cale. “To be on a song with one of my heroes is quite frankly completely magical and totally unexpected – running on the spot in a dream kinda vibes,” Charli said of working with the former Velvet Underground singer.
There’s more film music coming too, with Charli co-exec-producing the soundtrack for Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel’s A24 epic pop drama, Mother Mary (April 2026), alongside Jack Antonoff. This marks the pop star’s third collaboration with A24; she donated Hot Girl to horny housebound horror Bodies Bodies Bodies, while, in January she will star in the studio’s The Moment, based on an original idea by Charli. It’s not technically her first acting role – she played a version of herself earlier this year in Benito Skinner’s college-set comedy series Overcompensating and will be seen, once a release date is forthcoming, in what was supposed to be her official debut, Pete Ohs’ improv drama Erupcja, co-starring American playwright Jeremy O. Harris.
But first, The Moment (30 January), a mockumentary based on her 2024 Brat tour, directed by photographer, filmmaker and regular Charli collaborator Aiden Zamiri and written by journalist and former Mushpit editor, Bertie Brandes. The film features a reliably hectic soundtrack from A.G. Cook and appearances from Kylie Jenner, Rachel Sennott, Mel Ottenberg, Rosanna Arquette and Alexander Skarsgård.
The trailer reveals a sharp, spiky, smart and, crucially, funny film that interrogates the life of a pop star. Writer, author and model Tish Weinstock makes her acting debut in the film.
Weinstock, who had met Charli at a New Year’s Eve gathering a few months prior, is emphatic that Charli’s move into moviemaking is to be celebrated. “There’s this weird stigma within the creative industries whereby you’re not allowed to move from one lane into another. In particular, singers who try to be actors are sometimes dismissed,” she says. “The fact that Charli isn’t just putting out one movie is a testament to her rebellious, unapologetic spirit. It signals this idea that she does not give a fuck about archaic systems, but it also shows that she is so committed to the art and craft of acting. This isn’t just some whim but rather a serious creative pursuit – and that feels very Charli.”
Indeed, it’s not just an affectation. You can see what a vociferous culture consumer Charli is on both her Substack and her Letterboxd, where musings about Richard Linklater’s 1995 lovestruck two-hander Before Sunrise (“omg this chemistry”) exist alongside thoughts about obscure 1985’s post-apocalypse animated fantasy Angels Egg – “slow and stunning”. Of The Moment, she writes, “soft lock xx”. No, we’ve no idea what that means either.
A week after The Moment, Charli can be seen in Julia Jackman’s gorgeous Gothic romantasy 100 Nights Of Hero (6 February) which stars Emma Corrin, Marika Monroe, Nicholas Galitzine and Richard E. Grant. Charli plays Rosa, one of three sisters who can read and write at a time (and in a world) where women are banned from such activities. She’s great; super present, incredibly natural, charismatic but also perfectly pitched. She’s not the star of the show, nor does she try to be but she shines regardless.
“Charli just likes what she likes, and her taste is truly eclectic,” says director Julia Jackman, via email. “I loved having this small but wonderful creative experience with her, and I can’t wait to see what she does next.”
What she’s doing next continues to reveal Charli’s passion for filmmaking, involving and investing herself in projects that seem interesting, smart, weird and cool; like former videomaker Romain Gavras’s satirical thriller Sacrifice, starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans, Salma Hayek, Ambika Mod and pal Yung Lean. Or the satirical thriller The Gallerist starring Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, Da’vine Joy Randolph and Catherine Zeta-Jones, premiering at Sundance next month.
And it doesn’t stop there. Other films slated for release include Daniel Goldhaber’s remake of the 1978 mondo horror Faces Of Death with Stranger Things’ Dacre Montgomery and Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira, and Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, co-written by Slutever‘s Karley Sciortino. Charli is also slated as both star and producer of a new offering from prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike. “I can see her disappearing into all kinds of roles, refusing to get pigeonholed, and I find that very exciting,” says Jackman. “The Takashi Miike collab is going to be crazy.”
THE MOMENT | A24 | A FILM BY AIDAN ZAMIRI, BASED ON AN ORIGINAL IDEA BY CHARLI XCX
“Charli has an amazing ability to exist both within the mainstream and on the fringes, which is quite rare: she is both of the zeitgeist and a critique of it,” concludes Weinstock. “I think her superpower is her intelligence and critical self-awareness. Everything she puts out is deliberate; she is the architect of her own stardom and power, which is really rare in the music industry.”
We might as well just accept it; it’s Charli’s world, we’re all just existing in it. As she herself foretold on Brat’s opener, 360: ‘I went my own way and I made it. I’m your favourite reference, baby.”
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