Billie Eilish has made her acting debut in the new Amazon Prime thriller from Donald Glover, ‘Swarm.’ In addition to Billie, the show stars Chloe Bailey, Paris Jackson, Rory Culkin, and internet star Rickey Thompson.
Eilish had surprised fans last week with a short clip of her in the new series, which finds her sitting across Dominique Fishback’s character Dre, for a tense conversation. Eilish whispers: “Did you hurt someone?” and when Dre answers “yes,” Billie responds “very good.” Eilish then shared on Instagram a slide show of photos from behind the scenes of her cameo appearance.
Created by Donald Glover (also known as Childish Gambino) and Janine Nabers, Swarm will focus on an obsessed fan from Houston (Fishback) who goes to extreme lengths to get close to her favorite R&B singer Ni’jah, played by Chloe Bailey. The story is said to be inspired by the Beyhive and certain fans’ relationship with their idol, Beyoncé. However, a disclaimer appears at the start of each episode, reading: “This is not a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is intentional.”
Eilish’s role is inspired by the real-life NXIVM cult. Co-creator Janine Nabers told the Hollywood Reporter “There is a cult that existed in the world that was very prominent during that time … And that is the kind of true-crime element to that episode. And I think that when people think of the idea of artists or celebrities, there is this idea of thinking about the cult of Taylor Swift, or the cult of The Beatles or whatever. What we were really interested in was just seeing someone who worships at the altar of ‘something’, and [exploring] this idea of what is the cult of the mind.”
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