Billie Eilish and James Cameron tell us about ‘Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour’
The pop giant and box-office smashing director tell us about teaming up for their ambitious new concert film
By Nick Reilly
As Billie Eilish and James Cameron gear up to release Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour, the pop giant and highest grossing director of all time have told Rolling Stone UK about teaming up on the new 3D documentary.
Filmed during Billie’s shows at Manchester’s Co-op Live last summer, the documentary sees Billie in full flight, with 3D transporting fans to the heart of the action.
“You’re in the crowd. When you’re looking at her from very close up, and there’s the hands and the heads and everybody around you, it makes you feel like you’re there, right?” says Cameron of his approach on the film.
But the Avatar director also agreed with Billie that there was a second character in the film who was just as important: Billie’s incredible fans.
“For me, the fans are the most important part of the show to me and as important as me up there,” says Billie. “We’re all there together and like you’ve said, they’re the co-star of the movie. It’s equally about them as it is about me.”
Check out our whole Q&A with Billie Eilish and James Cameron below.
Congratulations on the film, Billie. In your directorial debut you’ve made a documentary with the highest-grossing film director of all time…
Billie: Hell yeah I did! He’s such a legend and everybody knows it, so when he reached out to me it was such an insane idea that I would never thought would ever happen.
James: It’s not that crazy…
Billie: No, but it was definitely a shock to see your name on my mum’s phone! It was James’ idea to have me co-direct, which was pretty amazing coming from someone at his level, his life and his career.
James: I did that because I had so much respect for you as an artist, and you had already created the entire show and it was such already a masterpiece. All I needed to do was just park the camera there and shoot it, right? And I’m going to take directing credit for that? [That] didn’t make any sense to me at all. It made total sense to me because we were just there to honour and celebrate what she had already created. But also, I’m bringing in 25 years of experience on the cinematography of 3D.
And why did you decide to shoot it in 3D, Jim?
James: That wasn’t a decision – that was a given. Asked and answered. I shoot everything in 3D, but only because I believe that it adds so much. Everybody’s got two eyes. Nature decided 340 millions years ago that everybody was going to have two eyes for a reason. Because it gives you a more situational awareness. It helps with your survival. And so our brains are wired for 3D and our brains are more active when we’re receiving 3D media, right? I’m just trying to align our entertainment to our sensory apparatus, because I think it adds a lot of value. I think in this film, you can see it clearly because you’re in the crowd. When you’re looking at her from very close up and there’s the hands and the heads and everybody around you, it makes you feel like you’re there. Or when you’re on stage with Billie, you feel like you’re there.
Billie, this film was shot in Manchester and there’s moments that touch on the formative moments of your career here, such as Reading in 2019 and your debut at Glastonbury before you became the festival’s youngest headliner. What does the UK mean to you?
Billie: I love the UK. This is the first place that I ever really came to when I was like 14 or
15, and it was the first work trip I ever went on. My first headline show was at the Courtyard Theatre in London, which was 200 cap with no green room and no bathroom.
Quite a jump from there to The O2…
Billie: Yeah! It’s a really sentimental and nostalgic place for me and I feel a real connection to this place and my fans here. I’ve made a lot of friends here over the years and I just have a real place for it in my heart.
James: You like the Manchester crowd too. You really threw down on those nights!
As much as the film focuses on yourself, Billie, it feels like a real love letter to your fans too…
Billie: It’s all that. That’s really the point and that was the main topic of discussion that would keep coming back because I would always be like, ‘More fans!’ and ‘More sound!’ because we gotta hear the fans more and see them more. Jim was so receptive of this and agreed also, which was pretty amazing. For me, the fans are the most important part of the show to me and as important as me up there. We’re all there together and like you’ve said,
they’re the co-star of the movie. It’s equally about them as it is about me.
James: They’re definitely a character, you know, and every scene had to be edited visually and mixed in a way that honoured them and this sacred resonance between Billie and them. But it also wasn’t done with a broad brush because if we literally just did exactly what happens at the concert, it would just be crowd roar from beginning to end, not a two-hour movie!
Jim, having now worked with Billie, I wondered if there was a previous character you’ve brought to the screen – be it Ellen Ripley or Sarah Connor – where you think they might have a similar spirit to Billie?
James: That’s interesting, because I have sort of made a career of creating interesting women on the page and then finding really interesting women to play those interesting women. But this is not fiction, of course. This is Billie. I can’t take credit for Billie. I can only take credit for getting her in focus and in frame. I think that might have been part of what
appealed to me about it. I don’t know if I would have been quite as excited about a male artist. I don’t know why that is. I’m just fascinated by the female experience. And as a male writer and filmmaker, trying to understand that, trying to project myself behind the eyes of a woman and the challenges that they feel in life and so on. You know, your fans are probably, what, 80 or 90 per cent female?
Billie: There’s a lot of guys there, too.
Jim: Yeah, but I think that the guys there are probably also trying to crack this code of, ‘How does the female heart and psyche work’? So this has been a great experience for me because it’s not just you and studying you and your performance, it’s the question of, ‘What are all these young women reacting to? What are they seeing? What’s speaking to them in your music and your songwriting and your actual personal example?’ I know that you don’t think, ‘OK, I have to be a role model’, but I know that you’re aware that you have become that for them. It’s just really, really interesting.