James Cameron knows a strong female lead when he sees one. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker spent decades making high-octane movies powered by the electric, resistant spirit of women\u2014whether it was stone-cold Sigourney Weaver in 1986\u2019s Aliens<\/em>, Kate Winslet\u2019s gutsy teen debutante in the 1997 blockbuster Titanic<\/em>, or Zoe Salda\u00f1a\u2019s cerulean warrior princess in the Avatar<\/em> series. For his latest project, Cameron set his sights on a new, nonfictional kind of heroine: a ballsy androgyne pop star in basketball shorts.<\/p>\n Coming May 8 to theaters nationwide, Billie Eilish\u2019s concert film Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D)<\/em>, which she codirected with Cameron, sees her commanding the stage in Manchester, England, while on her latest run of shows in 2025. In the teaser trailer, confetti flies and neon shocks of light cut through Eilish\u2019s silhouette as she leaps and bounds mischievously across the stage\u2014a Marvel character in the flesh, shot entirely in 3D. Frenzied cries of girls rip across the airwaves as she leans back and unfurls an impish grin to the crowd, eliciting an even louder burst of screams.<\/p>\n On a visit to the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood to meet the 10-time Grammy-winning singer, I spy her before she sees me. Wearing an oversize Smashing Pumpkins tee and sweats\u2014along with a walled-off, un-fuck-with-able stare\u2014she and her bodyguard are circling the lots outside as they take her gray pit bull, Shark, for his lunchtime walk. A little while later, we meet inside the invite-only movie theater, where her publicist hands each of us a pair of 3D glasses to watch the trailer. Afterward, as the surround sound bombast and the bright lights fade out, and the aquarium-blue lights come on above us, Eilish settles in to talk, sprawling across two of the seats, her legs hanging over the armrest. We\u2019re only a few minutes into our conversation when around the corner, Shark takes a heaping dump on the carpet and then trots over to Eilish, taking what can only be described as a victory lap. \u201cBro! Shark! That\u2019s bad behavior!\u201d Eilish says, a little embarrassed. She shakes her head and ruffles Shark\u2019s velveteen ears. \u201cHe\u2019s so well-trained. He knows better, but he didn\u2019t today!\u201d<\/p>\n Peacoat, Balenciaga. Pants, Adidas Originals. Shoes, Loewe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Eilish didn\u2019t initially plan to shoot a concert film for this tour\u2014much less one that follows her so closely behind the scenes as she hangs out with friends, does physical therapy, or cries in the greenroom. Her previous concert film, Happier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles<\/em>, was directed by Robert Rodriguez and Patrick Osborne and featured animated elements, \u00e0 la Who Framed Roger Rabbit?<\/em>, which added whimsy and made up for the fact that it was filmed in a vacant Hollywood Bowl at the height of the pandemic. Before that, director R. J. Cutler had closely documented her adolescence and the making of her sensational 2019 debut album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?<\/em>, for the film Billie Eilish: The World\u2019s a Little Blurry<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cAt first I was like, \u2018I don\u2019t want to do a documentary,\u2019\u201d she explains. \u201cI shot a documentary when I was 15 to 18, just being filmed for three years straight.\u2026I\u2019m so private about my actual life now.\u201d<\/p>\n But then Cameron came calling. Eilish got his pitch for the film from her mom, actor and activist Maggie Baird, who founded the L.A. nonprofit organization Support + Feed, which distributes plant-based meals to unhoused communities and others struggling with food insecurity while lowering the carbon footprint. \u201cUsually, things go through the team and the managers,\u201d Eilish says. \u201cBut it was literally my mom who told me, \u2018Hey, James Cameron has been really obsessed with your show from afar.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Coat, Prada. Scarf, Miu Miu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Eilish is based in L.A., a hop, skip, and a jump from Hollywood\u2014and from Highland Park, the northeastern neighborhood where she grew up. The 24-year-old was raised in a wildly creative family. Her parents, a carpenter and a teacher, also worked as part-time actors, and homeschooled Eilish and her older brother, the Grammy-winning producer and singer-songwriter Finneas O\u2019Connell, shuttling the kids between various music, acting, and dance classes. Eilish tells me, though, that she\u2019s just learned how filmmaking actually works. She\u2019s spent the past few weeks with Cameron in his Manhattan Beach production studio, Lightstorm Earth, where they\u2019ve been meticulously splicing concert footage with the goal of delivering an action-packed viewing experience. \u201cWe thought, \u2018Why don\u2019t we just film stuff backstage to have it?\u2019 James was holding this enormous 3D camera this close to me,\u201d she says, pinching her fingers in front of her nose. \u201cHe was the one interviewing me. He\u2019s the one asking me questions. And then I thought, This really does add a lot!\u201d<\/p>\n On the phone, Cameron says he knew of Eilish\u2019s star power onstage. But when he sat in on her first performance in Manchester, he realized her potential as a filmmaker, too. \u201cI came to admire and respect her drive as an artist,\u201d Cameron tells me. \u201cHow she manifests her artistic goals, not just to create beautiful music, but also to be a great performer. She was really the architect and creative guiding force on her show. She had conceived it so she would be in the center of the audience and play to all four quadrants. It\u2019s quite remarkable: She runs like a maniac from one end of the stage to the other, from side to side. She\u2019s all over the place, and the way in which she engages with her audience at the show is phenomenal.\u201d Watching her, he says, \u201cIt occurred to me that she and I should codirect this film.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI came to admire and respect her drive as an artist. How she manifests her artistic goals, not just to create beautiful music, but also to be a great performer.\u201d\u2014James Cameron<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n Finneas says he was tickled by Cameron\u2019s presence at the shows. \u201cI got to watch him watch the show, which was really impressive,\u201d Finneas recalls of the show in Manchester. \u201cHe was watching, like, 16 monitors at the same time, wearing 3D goggles. And because of the way 3D works, he had to center his head in front of each monitor that he was looking at, so he was dancing and bobbing, moving around. He\u2019s an incredibly fast, passionate, and hardworking dude.\u201d<\/p>\n A superhuman work ethic is something both Cameron and Eilish share. Still, Eilish has said her past tours were arduous, imposing a physical toll on her body. She incurred a hip growth plate injury while practicing for a hip-hop dance competition as a teen, and later learned that she suffers from hypermobility, a connective tissue disorder that comes with bouts of chronic pain. Her last tour, in particular, came with a few injuries. She sprained her ankle in Manchester, on the night that Cameron first joined the crew to start shooting the concert film. Earlier in the tour, during an October 2024 stop at New York City\u2019s Madison Square Garden, she tumbled down the stairs while exiting the stage and got a chunky bruise on her thigh. At a show in Miami, she fell when a man yanked her by the shirt; at another show, this time in Glendale, Arizona, a fan pelted her with a necklace while she was singing. \u201cSee these scrapes on my hands? That is from the fans,\u201d Eilish says in the film.<\/p>\n Pullover, Chanel. Shirt, Egonlab. Hat, \u201947 Brand. Brooch, Seaman Schepps. Brooch, Verdura. Clip, Van Cleef & Arpels. Earring (on hat), Massimo Izzo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n But she tells me the hardest thing about her latest tour was the fact that she\u2019d performed almost all of it without Finneas onstage with her. Together, the two are a multidisciplinary pop powerhouse that has cleaned up for years at the Grammys and the Academy Awards, becoming the youngest two-time Oscar winners for the songs they wrote for 2021\u2019s James Bond film No Time to Die<\/em> and 2023\u2019s Barbie<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a few years in the making,\u201d says Eilish of her decision to tour without her brother, who has released an EP and three albums on his own, including For Cryin\u2019 Out Loud!<\/em> in 2024. \u201cWe got so busy that we would only see each other right before going onstage,\u201d Eilish says. \u201cFinneas and Andrew [Eilish\u2019s touring drummer], who were the only band members I had back in the day, performed on some sort of platform that was hard to leave. Finneas was stuck in a tower\u2014like Rapunzel! He never said it, but I was feeling like, \u2018You have more to be doing than being my band member in the back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Although fans have speculated about the nature of his absence, both Eilish and Finneas tell me that her touring solo was a mutual decision. In the film, Eilish can be seen tearing up at a letter from her brother wishing her luck on their first tour apart. Finneas dropped by a few of Eilish\u2019s shows for moral support\u2014and eventually joined her onstage to sing. \u201cIt\u2019s basically true that I don\u2019t like touring, but I love the show part of it,\u201d Finneas says. \u201cAnd I love being around Billie. This past year, when she would be on tour for months, I missed her a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI heard somebody say, \u2018Did you guys hear Finneas and Billie had a falling-out?\u2019\u201d Eilish says. \u201cFinneas and I have never and will never have a falling-out, ever in our lives. We\u2019ll get in the biggest fucking fight you\u2019ve ever heard of in your life\u2026and five minutes later, we\u2019re back, laughing and making music. It\u2019s sibling shit. There\u2019s nothing else in the world like sibling relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n Hooded scarf, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. Pants, Adidas Originals. Hat, \u201947 Brand. Earring (on hat), Massimo Izzo. Clip, Van Cleef & Arpels. Brooch, Verdura, Broach, Seaman Schepps. Shoes, Miu Miu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hooded scarf, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. Hat, \u201947 Brand. Brooch, Verdura. Brooch, Seaman Schepps. Clip, Van Cleef & Arpels. Earring (on hat), Massimo Izzo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She later muses, \u201cIf I never saw Finneas at all, I might literally never make a song again\u2026.\u201d She trails off, seemingly considering the flip side of that closeness. \u201cBut how do we move on and have separate lives?\u201d<\/p>\n Eilish says she had to muster the strength to go it alone for the first time. She brought friends along, old and new, as opening acts for her shows, including her partner Nat Wolff and his brother Alex, The Mar\u00edas, Towa Bird, Ashnikko, Lucy Dacus, and Young Miko. She also indulged in family road trip staples\u2014\u201cI love that kind of shit,\u201d she says. She stopped by a pottery-making class in Tulsa, embarked on a zip-lining excursion in Austin, and signed up for a ropes course in Australia. \u201cI advocated for not being gone for longer than four weeks at a time without a break,\u201d she says. \u201cPerforming is my actual favorite thing in the world to do. So when I feel like I don\u2019t like it? That\u2019s when I want to recalibrate so I can enjoy it again.\u201d<\/p>\n Eilish and Finneas came together at the Grammys in February, where their Hit Me Hard and Soft<\/em> B-side, \u201cWildflower,\u201d won Song of the Year. \u201cIt was a miracle,\u201d she says. \u201cFinneas and I thought it would be an underrated song. It was one of my favorites, but I was like, \u2018This isn\u2019t gonna be the hit. It\u2019s a freaking guitar ballad!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Cameron tells me he was drawn to \u201cWildflower,\u201d too, while cutting concert footage. He says her performance of it is the standout moment in the film. \u201cI\u2019m very, very fond of \u2018Wildflower,\u2019 \u201d Cameron says. \u201cI mean, I like the up-tempo songs too, where she\u2019s bouncing around like a crazy whirling dervish. But it\u2019s one of the most beautiful scenes in the film. Everybody lights up the stadium with their phones; it\u2019s almost like 10,000 candles get lit. We were blessed to have an amazing camera operator, a young guy named Cole Peterson, 22 years old, up there with a gimbal camera arched around Billie. She sustains these notes that are just phenomenal in that song. I think of them almost as operatic arias. It\u2019s very beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Shirt, Bottega Veneta. Necklace, Van Cleef & Arpels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n Recalling the scene, Eilish demonstrates her vocal melismas from the song for me. (She adds that she listens to herself on Spotify more than any other artist, coming in at number one on her own year-end Wrapped list: \u201cMy friends make fun of me,\u201d she says, but \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I make the music I want to listen to.\u201d) \u201cWhen I wrote the melodies for \u2018Wildflower,\u2019 I remember thinking, \u2018These are fucking sick and I don\u2019t know if people are gonna get it,\u2019\u201d she explains. \u201cI\u2019ve always been really inspired by Arabic singers\u2014my dad and I have bonded over our love for Arabic music. Like, I freaking love [Lebanese singer] Nancy Ajram. She\u2019s one of my favorite singers.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s in those moments of musical reverie that Eilish indulges her more romantic side. She says her favorite movie of Cameron\u2019s is Titanic<\/em>, with a wistful sigh. \u201cI hate to be so on the nose, but it\u2019s a beautiful movie. There was like, me before I watched that movie, and me after I watched the movie. My friends and I watched it when we were 12, and it was the first day that I decided I would start swearing.\u201d<\/p>\n Eilish has a fierce rebel spirit. Upon accepting her latest Grammy Award in February, she riled up conservative politicians and commentators when she spoke out against the escalating ICE raids, stating, \u201cNo one is illegal on stolen land.\u201d And when she appeared at the WSJ. Magazine<\/em> Innovator Awards in October, she openly challenged billionaires in the room, including Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg and Star Wars<\/em> creator George Lucas, to part with some of their wealth. \u201cIf you\u2019re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire?\u201d she asked the crowd. \u201cPeople need empathy and help more than ever. Especially in our country.\u2026If you have money, it would be great to use it for good things, maybe give it to some people that need it.\u201d Her speech wasn\u2019t just lip service. That same night, it was announced that she had pledged $11.5 million of the revenue from her last tour, which reportedly amounts to a little less than a quarter of her net worth, to multiple charities and organizations. (She raised the money by selling special \u201cChangemaker\u201d tickets to fans who wished to pay a little extra to help combat food inequality and the climate crisis.)<\/p>\n Dress, Marc Jacobs. Brooch, Verdura. Ring, Massimo Izzo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n \u201cI was raised like this,\u201d explains Eilish of her comfort with speaking out. \u201cWhen you have this insane platform that you can use to advocate for people, but you\u2019re not advocating for people because you don\u2019t want to be controversial?\u201d she says, petting Shark as he snoozes peacefully in the seat between us. \u201cWhy is it controversial to step in when someone\u2019s getting bullied and try to stop it? Yeah, you\u2019re probably gonna have to deal with some problems, but that doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n In spite of her critics\u2019 best efforts to tamp down her fighting spirit, what keeps her coming back to the public eye is the camaraderie she shares with her fans through her songwriting. \u201cWhat I am going through actually isn\u2019t just me, it\u2019s everyone,\u201d she says. \u201c\u2018What Was I Made For?\u2019 was such an intimate little window into my feelings. And in my head, I feel like, \u2018Oh my God, I\u2019m the only person who feels this way.\u2019 And when you\u2019re in a room with thousands of people singing back to you the lyrics that you wrote alone about something specific to you? And they have their entire own relationship to it? It\u2019s the most magical thing in the world. So I make art and music to reach people, to help people.\u201d<\/p>\n The concert film shines a light on those fans, whether they\u2019re in sleeping bags outside the venue or sobbing at the barricades. Many are interviewed in the film, sharing stories of the songs that resonated most with them\u2014songs about survival, loneliness, depression. Many of them arrived dressed in a tomboyish style similar to Eilish\u2019s, citing her as the key to unlocking new avenues for their gender expression.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in a room with thousands of people singing back to you the lyrics that you wrote alone about something specific to you?.\u2026It\u2019s the most magical thing in the world.\u201d\u2014Billie Eilish<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/section>\n \u201cSetting aside the quality of the songwriting, the emotionality and all\u2014for her fans, it\u2019s the fact that they grew up together,\u201d Cameron says. \u201cThey\u2019ve been through the teenage wars, and she was there for them. They watched her go through things, and they watched her turn it into art. Not just girls, but a lot of guys, too. There\u2019s zero objectification, 100 percent identification. She says, \u2018I\u2019m going to wear my loose clothes. I\u2019m going to be comfortable in my own skin, not as some virtuous role model, but to be a model of truthfulness to oneself.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For Eilish, being true to herself means giving credit where it\u2019s due. \u201cI\u2019m not the first person who\u2019s worn baggy clothes,\u201d she says of her wardrobe, citing inspirations like Harlem fashion influencer Bloody Osiris and hip-hop icons Tyler, the Creator and Missy Elliott. But she also craved the freedom of movement afforded by these clothes, and the resulting gender euphoria of it all. \u201cI had a really, really toxic relationship with my body,\u201d Eilish says. \u201cI had a lot of eating issues. I remember putting on, like, a big shirt and the relief that I felt. At the same time, it was my love for hip-hop culture and wanting to be a man. This is the misogyny that we all have within us\u2026which is that I didn\u2019t want to be seen as feminine, and therefore weak. It\u2019s not right. I\u2019ve found a good way of not feeling like that.\u201d<\/p>\n Shirt, Bottega Veneta. Necklace, Bulgari. Necklace, Van Cleef & Arpels. Bracelets, John Hardy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n She\u2019s found herself. But she\u2019s still finding new dimensions. For one, she tells me she\u2019s eyeing some acting opportunities. In March, Deadline<\/em> reported that Eilish was in talks to make her film acting debut in an upcoming adaptation of Sylvia Plath\u2019s 1963 novel The Bell Jar<\/em>. Though the role itself is yet to be announced, director Sarah Polley, whose 2022 film Women Talking<\/em> won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, will be at the helm. \u201cWriting and directing a film is so much work. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019ll ever be a thing that I do, but the acting side [is what] I\u2019m really interested in,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ll see where that takes us.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Cameron, though, the most heroic role Eilish could play is herself. \u201cI\u2019ve been a serial offender in extolling the virtues of female power and its many dimensions,\u201d Cameron says, musing on his past films. \u201c[Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour<\/em>] is just a continuation of that same motif as a filmmaker. I\u2019ve gotten a rare opportunity to do an intimate portrait of a female artist I admire. If she had turned out to be a complete diva and a horrific person, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d feel about the film the way I feel right now. But I feel very proud of the film, and proud of her and what she does.\u201d<\/p>\n Even if she is a little fatigued by the omnipresence of cameras around her, whether they be smartphones or Cameron\u2019s bulky 3D machines, Eilish can already appreciate the value of having a time capsule of her most epic tour to date. \u201cCapturing a show that I can watch when I\u2019m old and feel like I\u2019m there again\u2026it gives me chills,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I\u2019m so grateful that it\u2019s going to live forever.\u201d<\/p>\n Lead image: Coat, Prada. Scarf, Miu Miu.<\/em><\/p>\n Hair by Benjamin Mohapi at Benjamin Salon; makeup by Emily Cheng at The Wall Group; manicure by Erin Leigh Moffett at Art Department; set design by Logan Rauhut; produced by 138 Productions. <\/em><\/p>\n This story appears in the May 2026 issue of ELLE.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n![\"Magazine](\"https:\/\/hips.hearstapps.com\/hmg-prod\/images\/3393ad19-7261-4d01-aa4a-9e7096f0c9d5.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:*\" "\\"Magazine")
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