Singer and songwriter Billie Eilish was barely a teenager when she became a global sensation with her debut single, “ocean eyes.” Her highly personal, genre-bending style established her as a worldwide superstar before she was 20 and has won her 10 Grammy Awards to date, as well as two Oscars for Best Original Song. Her latest album, 2024’s Hit Me Hard and Soft, inspired a sold-out global tour that traveled from North America to Europe, Australia and Japan. Now she is the star and co-director of an innovative, immersive new 3D concert film in collaboration with Oscar winner and visionary director James Cameron.
It was Cameron who proposed the idea. While in the midst of production for Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third installment of his groundbreaking 3D franchise, he met with Eilish’s mother, actress and musician Maggie Baird, about an upcoming film opportunity. “Maggie and my wife Suzy Amis Cameron are both deeply passionate about sustainability and food choice,” he says. “They had gotten together on a number of projects over the years. I was showing Maggie some new 3D stuff we might use in a future film and I just blurted out, ‘Why not shoot Billie’s tour in 3D?’ And Maggie just said, ‘I’ll ask her.’”
Eilish was already well into her tour but unexpectedly open to the idea. Making a film was not something she had been planning on. In fact, she had already decided not to do it. “But when my mom told me that James Cameron was asking if I wanted to make a movie of the concert in 3D, it sounded like it could be the coolest thing in the world,” she recalls. “I love the tour and the show so much. I had started to hate knowing that I wouldn’t be able to hold on to it. But when Jim came in with this idea, I realized that I would be able to re-experience it forever. So my answer was a resounding yes!”
The legendary devotion between the singer-songwriter and her fans inspired Cameron to suggest an intimate approach that would allow the film’s audience to experience what it is like to be Billie Eilish for a short time. “We decided to try and capture her reality of a day on the tour,” he says. “She had a lot of ideas about how to do that. She had already created the visuals and the colors and the screens for the show. She knew exactly how she wanted to show it all.”
The veteran filmmaker made an unexpected offer to Eilish. He asked her to co-direct the film with him. “She is the architect of an amazing show,” he explains. “She knows every beat so specifically. She knows her fans intimately and could talk me through that. What I know is how a movie works. I also knew the new technology I wanted to use, because my company developed it. So it became a perfect creative collaboration.”
Eilish jumped at the offer. “James Cameron is an Oscar-winning filmmaker and the king of 3D!” she says. “I never expected somebody of that stature to offer to co-direct with me. That was pretty magical. Once it was confirmed that we were doing it, we sprang into action. He came to see my show in Australia and we spent a lot of time talking through everything on the phone.”
The filmmakers shot over four days, capturing performances at the Co-op Live arena, the U.K.’s largest music venue, in Manchester, England, in July 2025. “Billie chose those dates because she really liked the arena,” says Cameron. “I thought I would just sneak away from making the Avatar movie for a few days and no one would ever know. It worked out beautifully. It was all very hectic and high-energy and a lot of fun.”
Eilish is known for her athletic, dynamic performance style and unusually personal audience engagement. “She’s in constant motion,” Cameron says. “Sometimes she’s just running flat out up and down the stage, which is about half the size of a football field. And people aren’t just passively listening. It’s like she has 20,000 backup singers. It’s a profoundly moving group experience and she’s like a tuning fork at the middle of it. I’m not saying that 20,000 people all sing perfectly in key, but they’re singing with her and they’re feeling the joy or the sadness of that moment with her.”
Getting the scope of the epic performance on camera required lots of planning and up to 20 cameras shooting simultaneously. “It took months of prep to make sure that we had every single shot and every single angle and every single moment of lighting all worked out,” Eilish says. “There were small but important moments that I wanted to be sure to include. It was important to me that the band was filmed every night. We spent so much time getting it right.”
The Billie Eilish Experience
While Eilish loved the idea of a film that would allow fans to experience her show as if they were there, she admits she was a bit apprehensive. “I wanted it to be a perfect version of the show,” she says. “The whole point of making a concert film was to capture what actually happened as it was happening. Changing anything for the film would have felt like a compromise.
“Originally we thought we would shoot only the concert,” she continues. “But we organically started filming stuff behind the scenes because there were cool things happening and the camera was there. It was the weirdest experience, but we got amazing stuff. The focus expanded to include the full experience, like how I created the show.”
The set for Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour is a direct reflection of Eilish’s creative vision. Designed by the singer and executed by the Moment Factory, an entertainment studio specializing in immersive experiences, it is packed with startling and unforgettable visuals that combine video, lighting, architecture, sound and special effects. A 360-degree circular main stage dominates the center of the arena and allows the star maximum contact with her audience, while the stage’s dynamic LED video floor showcases constantly changing images, while massive LED screens overhead stream the concert in real time. Laser displays, smoke machines and state-of-the-art lighting effects create “hard” and “soft” moments evoking the tour’s themes. An eclectic set list brings together new songs, earlier hits and covers in genres ranging from pop and rock to hip hop and electronic music.
Billie Eilish and Finneas in Paramount Pictures Presents A Lightstorm Earth Production / The Darkroom / Interscope Films Production of “BILLIE EILISH HIT ME HARD AND SOFT: THE TOUR (LIVE IN 3D)”
“It was so important that we showcased all the visuals — every color and every lighting cue, everything on the screens, every single moment in this entire show,” Eilish says. “That was all curated for this tour by me and an incredible group of people. The show is in the round, which I had never done before. It had this energy to it that was like nothing I’d experienced before. Even though it was an arena with thousands and thousands of people all around, it felt intimate, like we were all together in a small room.”
The film features Eilish’s pre-show prep for the grueling one-hour-and-forty-minute show and captures the performance that fans saw live, as well as her backstage life. Viewers will even get a glimpse of the tour’s famous “Puppy Room,” an actual room full of dogs to help people to relax. (A different rescue organization provided the pups at each stop. The dogs were all available for adoption.)
“We had long creative meetings to ensure we would fulfill her vision for the film,” Cameron says. “I did push her to try things that seemed outside of her comfort zone. For example, we needed to shoot over multiple nights so we wanted her to wear the same costumes every night. At first she said, no, she wasn’t changing anything. But I found out with Billie that ‘no’ can lead to ‘maybe’ and then ‘maybe’ leads to ‘okay, but here are the conditions.’ Ultimately, we got it all to work.”
At its heart, the film is about the extraordinary way in which Eilish connects with her audience. “One thing Billie is not, is a diva,” Cameron says. “She’s a very down-to-earth person, very transparent with her fans. Her trauma and her triumphs get written into her music for them to experience, which makes them feel exceptionally close to her. They went through their teenage years with her, watching how she processed many of the same challenges. A lot of them have grown up with her. When she performs live, the audience participates in the music.”
The fans are represented throughout the movie both in short interviews at the venue and during the performance. “There are shots of thousands of people all in perfect sync, knowing every lyric and being right there with her,” says Cameron. “People know the music so well they can almost channel her. It’s a joyful, deeply emotional experience. It’s not just jumping up and down and rocking out, although many of the songs are pretty dynamic, so people do all that stuff, too. But the slower, more emotional songs have the greatest power.”
The Final Destination
According to Eilish, the finished film is even better than she thought it could be. Working with Cameron was an eye-opening experience for her. “He always treated me like an equal and a partner. I have been directing my own music videos since I was about 16, but that’s very different from making a movie. Part of the reason Jim and I worked so well together is that a lot of our beliefs align. We share a real love for the art of it. From the beginning we agreed that the goal of shooting this movie was to capture the way that art impacts people all around the world and the incredible bond that I share with the fans. This show is a perfect example of our connection, of how important they are to me.”
She describes watching the finished product as a “very trippy” experience. “To see it all in 3D was mind-blowing,” she marvels. “I can watch myself like I’m right there and it’s wild. I’m really excited for audiences to see it, especially the close-up stuff. Even if they were at the concert in person, they weren’t that close. They’re going to get to see beyond just their point of view from the audience.
“I want everyone to see this movie. I’m so proud of it. I think that this is the best show I’ve ever created and performed,” Eilish adds. “It doesn’t matter if you were there or not, it’s going to be a unique experience. I hope that the experience that I had creating that show, doing the show, filming it and then editing it with Jim comes through.”
Cameron admits to having some favorite moments in the film, and is looking forward to finding out what speaks to other people. “Even if you went to one of the shows, you weren’t right there on stage with her like you are in the film. You feel like you’re physically present with an amazing world-class performer. I love what we call the ‘Billie Cam.’ She used it to film herself during the concert. When the camera is in her hands, she gets even closer than Cole could and it’s even more intimate. There are also particular songs that I always look forward to seeing like ‘Diner’ and ‘Lunch.’ ‘Chihiro’ is a great opening, and ‘Wildflower,’ of course, one of her Grammy-winning songs.”
He agrees with Eilish that this is a film everyone can enjoy. “If you’re already a fan, if you’ve been to any of her shows, but especially this show, it’s going to bring it all back so vividly,” Cameron says. “If you’ve heard about the show but you missed seeing it in person, this is a chance to see it as if you were there in the midst of it. We go into her mind with her. That’s much more than what you could have ever seen live. And if you’re not a fan yet, I challenge you to see her perform in this movie and come out of the theater without becoming a fan for life.”
Having released three studio albums, including her latest, Hit Me Hard and Soft, 24-year-old Billie Eilish remains one of the biggest stars to emerge in the 21st century. The album was written and recorded in her hometown of Los Angeles, with her brother, longtime collaborator and producer Finneas. Together, the multiple Grammy and Academy Award-winning pair created her most daring work to date, and what Rolling Stone called “Eilish’s best album yet.”
Since the release of her debut single, “ocean eyes,” in 2015, Eilish has continued to shatter the ceiling of music. Her first album, 2019’s When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S. as well as in 17 additional countries, and was the most streamed album of that year. In 2021, she released her sophomore album, Happier Than Ever, which also debuted at #1 in the Billboard 200 in the U.S. and 19 countries across the globe. Critically acclaimed worldwide, both albums were written, produced and recorded entirely by Eilish and Finneas.
A 10-time Grammy Award winner, Eilish has made history as the youngest artist to receive nominations and win in all the major categories at the 62nd GrammyAwards, receiving an award for Best New Artist, Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. She is also the youngest artist to write and record an official James Bond theme song, “No Time to Die,” which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2022. In 2023, Eilish also wrote and released the critically acclaimed song “What Was I Made For?” for the Greta Gerwig-directed motion picture Barbie, which won an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, two GrammyAwards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media, and solidified Eilish yet again in the history books as the youngest person ever to win two Academy Awards.
