Charli XCX’s The Moment officially hits cinemas today (February 6), showing a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos and glamour from her triumphant 2024-2025 Brat arena tour.
Blurring the lines between reality and fiction, the meta mockumentary showcases "a rising pop sensation (played by Charli XCX) who navigates fame and industry pressures while preparing for her arena tour debut, revealing the transformation of underground culture into mainstream success.""
iHeartRadio's Shannon Burns spoke to Charli and the film's director Aidan Zamiri about how the film arose from their ongoing collaborative relationship.
Following their work together on the music videos for her songs "360" and "Guess," which Zamiri, making The Moment felt like a logical extension. They view their relationship as "creative soulmates."
"I've said this a lot before, but Charli is so honest," says Zamiri. "And to me, that is what good art is about. It's about being full. And I've been a fan of hers for over half my life now. And so I feel extremely lucky. I'd say sometimes it's really good to meet your heroes. And Charli's made my life a million times better since we've met."
"I feel the same way about Aidan," Charli adds. "I mean, I think we approach our work - whether we're working together or working on separate projects – in a very, very similar way. I do think we have a sort of quest for truth. And at the same time as that, we also love a meta reference and connecting things within the bubble of the culture that we're in. I think we also share a lot of the same insecurities, which was really important in making this film together because I think Aidan and I can relate to each other so much as artists. Like the pressure that we sometimes feel in our art and on ourselves as people. So it's kind of a match made in heaven."
For the two of them, the timing of The Moment was something they wanted to nail. Now that promotion for her 2024 smash album Brat has winded down, they felt now was the time to let her fans relive the experience with a twist.
"There's something kind of fun about even the timing of this film coming out," Zamiri says. "Charli and I are obviously both really interested in not just the making of the film, but also how it's communicated, how we invite people into it and how we make it a part of culture for people that care about it. And so even the timing of it coming out in spring 2026, I think there's something interesting about playing with the tension of Brat overstaying its welcome because it feels kind of correct in connection with our film."
Starring well-known actors such as Alexander Skarsgård and Jamie Demetriou, The Moment features Charli playing a fictionalized version of herself, along with other real-life celebrities as themselves, such as Rachel Sennott, Julia Fox and Kylie Jenner, along with other cameos of people in the Bratisphere.
Charli says that while they got most of the big names they wanted to appear in the film, one person who couldn't make it work was Addison Rae.
"We wanted to fly Addison in for this sort of dinner scene," she reveals. "But we couldn't figure it out with the dates. And also, thank God we didn't because the scene ended up getting cut. But I think that was it."
Zamiri says it was important for them to cast based on everyone that was there for the Brat cycle.
"I remember Charli and I gave ourselves a rule early on, which was that if someone existed within the Brat universe, we had to kind of acknowledge that," he says. "So, Rachel's obviously in there, but it has to be clear that the '360' music video already exists."
Of course, The Moment isn't the only film Charli is currently working on. She is also set to star in Pete Ohs’ Erupcja, Julia Jackman's 100 Nights of Hero, Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice, Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death, Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, and Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist.
In addition to that, she has recorded a new album that will serve as the soundtrack to "Wuthering Heights", director Emerald Fennell's updated adaptation of Emily Brontë's timeless novel, which arrives February 13.
Originally asked to contribute one song, Charli quickly offered to record an entire album of songs for the film after reading the script.
"Honestly, it was, it was Emerald's screenplay. I really just devoured it," she says. "I thought she had written a beautiful interpretation of the classic novel. I just felt really inspired. I love to work in complete contrasts and after working on Brat for so long and living within that world, I was just craving to do something completely different. And we were working with strings and a lot of sounds that just aren't present on Brat at all. So it felt inspiring to pivot."
Watch the full interview below.