Charli XCX Felt “Very Vulnerable” Filming Her Brat-Inspired Mockumentary

Charli XCX has spoken to THR about the demanding process of shooting The Moment, her upcoming mockumentary inspired by the huge cultural success of her Brat album from 2024.

The Moment is directed by Aidan Zamiri, an acclaimed filmmaker best known for directing the music video to "360", the lead single from Brat. The film's cast includes Charli XCX, Alexander Skarsgård, Rachel Sennott, and Kylie Jenner.

The Moment Is Not A Documentary, Charli Confirms

While the British singer had initially considered making a documentary following the immense success of Brat, what followed was ultimately something "that really spoke to [her] as an artist." Drawing a line between her real self and The Moment's fictionalized version of herself was a crucial part of the filming process.

"I'm really always interested in flipping the form," said Charli. Zamiri added: "A lot of our considerations were really about [how] the character of Charli in the film is not the same as the real-world Charli — she’s fictional — but it’s also a version of her that could have existed in some different circumstances."

With a script that was finished in just ten days, Charli and Zamiri were principally concerned with telling a story that highlights the darker corners of the music industry without making it seem too real.

"It felt very vulnerable because I tapped into the most extreme parts of my personality that sometimes I feel the need to hide and diminish,” the singer/songwriter admitted. "It’s scary to admit you feel like that."

The Moment Is A Hate Letter To The Music Industry

2024 was a formative year for Charli XCX as a musical artist. To her fans, she was somebody who'd been putting out consistently impressive, genre-defining music for the past decade. To most, she was somebody whose songs would namelessly bounce around their heads from time to time. By the end of the year, she was one of the biggest pop stars in the world.

And yet, Charli XCX is quick to clarify that the image most audiences have of her couldn't be further from reality. "Being an artist within [the industry], you really get to control every single element of what is put out about you — the angle from which your face is shot; the edits of your music videos; the edits of your product placement, photo shoots, whatever [...] That controlled final image is what the public see."

With The Moment, the singer intends to give a more honest, transparent insight into what the music industry can truly be like. "Being an artist is a really volatile thing. One minute you can be on top of the world and think you are the best and the most important person in the room [...] and then the next minute you can feel like a piece of shit on someone’s shoe."

The Moment will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival before releasing in theaters across the U.S. on January 30. It will be one of two films that Charli XCX is starring in at the festival, following Gregg Araki's anticipated sex comedy, I Want Your Sex.