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It’s the perennial question when a big star plays themselves (or a version of themselves): how much of this is true? That query is at the heart of Aidan Zamiri’s “The Moment,” starring his good friend (and huge star) Charli XCX as, well, “Charli XCX.” Styled as a mockumentary about the tail-end of “Brat Summer,” the film offers a satirical and smart look at the innards of the big music machine, as “Charli XCX” grapples with her insane new fame.
But how much of that is real to the actual Charli XCX?
The star and director visited the IndieWire Studio, presented by Dropbox the morning after their massive world premiere at Sundance‘s Eccles Theater on Friday night, and were still buzzing from the event. “You felt it in the room, it was just so cool to have everyone laugh at these jokes or feel the emotions that Charli feels in the film,” Zamiri said.
Charli XCX is credited for the original idea for the raucous A24 film — Zamiri and Bertie Brandes wrote the screenplay — which had been inspired by her many emotions following the onset of her exploding fame in 2024. She shared some of those thoughts with Zamiri in a document that then helped frame the film.
“I kind of just had been writing this document about the feelings that I was having going through, what had been for me, like a very kind of crazy summer,” Charli XCX told IndieWire. “I had been in the music industry since I was 16 and in 2024, things really changed for me in a huge way, and I kind of went through this sort of transitional period in my life where the level of expectation that was put on me like drastically shifted.”
She continued, “That was sort of like the musings in the document that I sent Aidan, this kind of idea of external pressure, other people’s projections of me being put upon me, whilst also me, myself, being kind of like ‘Who am I? What do I want? Everything’s changing! I have everything I’ve ever dreamed of, but now it feels meaningless! All that’s left do is lose it!’ All those existential thoughts that I think anybody has when they go through this period of change in their lives.”
Zamiri agreed, telling his star, “What I think we’ve done is get at something which feels truthful, and hopefully presents something which is perhaps more honest and gets more to the core of, I think, how you feel and how I feel, maybe more than any other format.”
OK, so how much of it is real? The duo are ready and willing to offer answers.
“The emotions and the experiences that my character in the film goes through a very truthful,” Charli XCX said. “This idea of being pulled between your most sort of like honest, real, artistically integral self versus, being pulled between this sort of like commercialized version of yourself, this kind of product version of yourself, [are] both really tempting. [Feeling pulled] between those things, that’s definitely something that I’ve experienced and is very truthful. No matter like who you are or what you what you do, I feel like there’s always external voices, kind of like pulling you in different directions in your life, so that part of the film is very truthful.”
But the star added with a laugh, “The people in the film? We’ve all met different versions of certain characters in this film, but are they based on real people? No! Legally, no!”
Zamiri and his star are long-time friends and very close collaborators, and their chemistry is on full display in their interview, as they chatted happily away about everything from how it feels to bring their film to a place like Sundance to co-star Alexander Skarsgård’s profound commitment to the bit and the star’s ongoing plans for her burgeoning movie career.
Watch the complete conversation with “The Moment” team in the video above.
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