SPOILERS are ahead for Swarm, now streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription.
Months before Billie Eilish wrote a hit song for the biggest movie of the year, Barbie, the famous singer also made her TV debut in Amazon’s Swarm, in an absolutely delicious guest role. Eilish got to play the head of a culty female empowerment collective that Dominque Fishback’s Dre meets on her unsettling journey to see her favorite artist live. Now that fans have had a chance to see Eilish’s queer (and very eerie) role in Swarm, she is sharing her thoughts about their reactions.
Billie Eilish can be found halfway into Swarm, in an episode called “Running Scared.” In the episode, Dre finds solace with a group of women lead by Eva (Eilish) ahead of her plans to attend the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Tennessee. Eilish gets to play the “bad guy” of the episode who ends up getting run over by Dre after giving off some seriously creepy vibes. Here’s how she reflected on the role:
Billie Eilish is a horror fan herself who has not shied away from approaching dark subjects in her songs and music videos, but Swarm gave her the opportunity to play someone completely different than herself and work with some notable talent. Along with sharing scenes with Fishback, the show was created by Donald Glover and Janine Nabers of Atlanta. (Fun fact: former President Obama’s daughter Malia Obama was even a staff writer on it!) As Eilish continued to The Hollywood Reporter:
Eilish has read some of the comments about her role in the Swarm cast and she is not good with people calling Eva “comforting” when she was clearly not a good person. The character was even inspired by the NXIVM cult, which sold itself as a self-help corporation before it devolved into a very dangerous operation that was later exposed to be involved in sex-trafficking, among its many wrongdoings. Check out one pivotal scene from Eilish’s appearance on the show:
Swarm was an especially apt series for Billie Eilish to be in because of the ways in which the show comments on stan culture. Its main character spends the season being obsessive over seeing her favorite singer to the point of committing acts of violence. Not only does her role have something to say about society, but she pulled a really incredible performance that has us hoping she’ll return to acting soon!