Charli XCX is Writing Songs That ‘Couldn’t Be More Different From…

Charli XCX is back in the studio, but not necessarily with Brat 2 in mind.

In a new Vanity Fair cover story, the singer opens up about everything tethered to and orbiting away from her music including her pivot into film, what’s next creatively, and her thoughts on how she’s perceived.

If you’re waiting for a follow-up to Brat, you might want to get comfortable. Charli confirmed she’s making new music, but mostly for her growing slate of film projects. She currently has seven projects in the tuck that audiences are slowing but surely gathering more details about. And for a lot of those films, she’s involved on the music side of course.

The pop singer is composing songs for the Margot Robbie- and Jacob Elordi-led Wuthering Heights.

“That’s the world I’ve been living in,” she told Vanity Fair. “[The music] is an elegant and brutal sound palette… It couldn’t be more different from Brat.”

She’s also partnering with producer Jack Antonoff to score the Anne Hathaway movie Mother Mary.

“We were making music that I don’t think I would ever make for my artist project,” she said, “but still music that I truly love.”

Charli also pulled back the curtain on The Moment, her most anticipated project.

“It’s not a tour documentary or a concert film in any way, but the seed of the idea came from being pressured to make one,” she said. “It’s fiction, but it’s the realest depiction of the music industry that I’ve ever seen.”

She said she turned down a standard music doc because the “triumph over adversity” formula didn’t feel true to her.

“My problem with a lot of musician documentaries is they often show the artist facing some opposition and eventually overcoming it to be the hero,” she explained. “That’s just not been my experience.”

We also get a feel for exactly who some the big named celebrities will be playing in the movie.

Alexander Skarsgård is reportedly playing a bit of a villain.

While most pop stars insist they ignore the noise, Charli admits she’s terminally online and fascinated by how fans interpret her, the music, and her image.

“It’s fascinating to see how people ingest your personality and spit it back out—what people cling on to, what people miss,” she said. “I’m always interested in what the casual viewer thinks. They probably think I’m a girl who parties and does drugs and is a little bit bitchy.”

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