Charli XCX

And how did you cast?

well we had we worked with an amazing casting director called jennifer vendetti she also casted marty supreme and she casted begonia like she's she's incredible yes she's she's the best and she does a lot with like street casting like she she really wants to you know she really wants to like bring um the projects to life by casting really kind of like interesting people like

she was really obsessed with the idea of Mel Ottenberg playing the character of my stylist all the cameos were perfect you know like it makes sense and then like our friend Tish Weinstock who does work as a writer for Vogue like she plays the girl from Vogue like she wanted to bring she's so good right yeah she wanted to bring life

Yeah, totally.

I mean, I think for me it was really important to not really be, like, the hero of this story because my experience of the music industry is –

not that you know like i sometimes i'm the hero in small scenarios um but i'm constantly kind of going back and forth between playing a bunch of different roles dealing with a bunch of different people in different ways and it's not this like linear pathway from like you know um

moral uh complication to like moral solve to the hero like that's just not what my life no and it's too predictable yeah like we're real people you know we experience things differently

Yeah, yeah.

And I think for me as well, it's like my experience with the music industry has been extremely messy and up and down, backwards and forwards.

It's never been this clear-cut road to success.

Yeah.

And actually, I think...

for a lot of artists, a lot of my friends who are artists, even if they've had unbelievably successful careers on the surface, it's like there are so many things that go wrong each and every single day when you're prepping for a brand shoot, a photo shoot, an album campaign, a music video.

There are always hurdles to overcome and obviously most of the time the public don't see that.

That is the reality.

Yeah, and I wanted to kind of show that in the film that it's actually a shit show the whole time.

Yeah, I mean, there's everyone, you know, I was inspired by a variety of different people for a variety of different characters, but I think with Johannes, he's not specifically based on one person.

He's more like an amalgamation of people and experiences who I've come across and Aidan has come across as a director as well.

And I think with him, the main thing is like, he is representative of somebody who really doesn't get it.

But thinks that they do.