Billie Eilish Breaks Down Her Music Video for 'What Was I Made For?'

Allure Magazine

Allure's October cover star Billie Eilish breaks down every detail of her music video for 'What Was I Made For?' from the 'Barbie' soundtrack. From spending "days and days" finding the right wigs for the look to deciding yellow was the prominent color for wardrobe, and even incorporating unbelievably elaborate details into the mini doll clothes, Billie explains how she was able to really achieve that elevated "vintage Barbie" vibe for the video. Hear Billie's behind-the-scenes perspective of self-directing the video, how her mom helped be her "model" and so much more.   Director: Noel Jean Director of Photography: Grant Bell Editor: Christopher Jones Coordinating Producer: Sydney Malone Line Producer: Jen Santos Production Manager: Andressa Pelachi Production Coordinator: Kariesha Kidd; Marquis Wooten Talent Booker: Eugene Shevertalov Camera Operator: Nick Massey Sound Mixer: Gray Thomas-Sowers Production Assistant: Fernando Barajas Post Production Supervisor: Christian Olguin Post Production Coordinator: Scout Alter Supervising Editor: Erica Dillman Additional Editor: Jason Malizia Assistant Editor: Billy Ward Graphics Supervisor: Ross Rackin

Transcript

00:00 Hi, I'm Billie Eilish, and I will be breaking down

00:02 my music video, "What Was I Made For?"

00:05 (gentle music)

00:08 ♪ What was I made for ♪

00:14 The video idea, definitely just the image

00:20 of the me sitting there, yellow dress, 45 degree angle,

00:26 desk, sage green background was just there.

00:29 Like, I didn't even really think about it.

00:32 I knew I wanted it to be a one take,

00:35 and I knew that I wanted it to be, you know,

00:38 have a deep meaning, shocker.

00:41 I was sitting there with like my mom and my team,

00:45 and we were talking about it, and my mom was like,

00:48 "You could be folding clothes,"

00:50 and then Chelsea was like, "What if they're mini clothes?"

00:53 And then we were like, "What if they're like my old clothes?"

00:57 As soon as we kind of decided that it was gonna be

01:00 all the old, you know, throughout my career moments,

01:05 but like Barbie size, I was stoked.

01:08 I was so excited.

01:09 I kind of based the whole Barbie aesthetic

01:19 on like the vintage Barbie.

01:21 That was like the idea, and that's not the Barbie

01:24 that I grew up with, but it's definitely like

01:26 the coolest one.

01:27 I don't know, it was just saving a lot of different photos

01:30 of all different Barbie hair, and all different like hair

01:35 from that kind of period of time.

01:36 I knew that I wanted it to be blonde,

01:39 just like a classic Barbie blonde,

01:42 and high ponytail, swoopy little curly bang.

01:46 I did not think it would be as hard

01:50 as it would end up being.

01:52 It was a full wig, wig.

01:54 It was a full on wig city.

01:56 Ben Mojave did my hair.

01:57 Ben, who has lived a lot of life, and done a lot of things,

02:01 said it was the hardest thing he's ever had to do.

02:04 [laughs]

02:05 Because it was days and days of work,

02:09 and also because it was a one take,

02:11 and it was gonna get super windy,

02:12 and it was gonna get rained on, it was a whole thing.

02:15 So there were two wigs.

02:17 Ben had quite a time having to deal with that hair.

02:20 It was insane.

02:21 I mean, I sat there for like two hours

02:23 as he did the full thing,

02:24 because the thing is you can't put it into that ponytail

02:27 unless it's on my head.

02:28 The girls that came to take my measurements,

02:31 we looked at different shades of blonde,

02:33 and picked the correct one,

02:35 and what the bangs were gonna look like,

02:37 and how the hair was gonna look like it was growing.

02:40 Wig knowledge is truly incredible stuff.

02:43 It's very admirable the way that people know about it.

02:46 [upbeat music]

02:49 There was potential to do anything, right?

02:51 I could have done full face of Barbie,

02:55 but I thought that given that I have

02:59 this little cute Barbie dress, I've got the hair,

03:03 I've got the little heels on, I'm in this other world,

03:07 I also wanted it to feel like it was also still me.

03:11 I just wanted it to just be really simple,

03:13 and dewy, and natural.

03:15 Just very what I normally look like, I think,

03:19 but just kind of made to look a little bit cleaner.

03:21 My girl Emily Chang did my makeup.

03:23 I was definitely rocking the waterproof makeup.

03:26 I always end up having these ideas

03:28 that make things really hard for me,

03:30 and for everybody else, too.

03:31 And everybody did such a good job of not freaking out,

03:34 and just going with the flow, I guess,

03:36 is really the only way I can put it.

03:38 Key makeup products, I mean, really key face products

03:42 is just always Biba.

03:43 Yeah, Biba de Souza.

03:45 She's my esthetician, and she's saved my life,

03:49 and my brother's life with our skin.

03:52 I've had a good amount of acne,

03:55 and still struggle with it,

03:56 and it's been an ongoing thing in my life,

03:59 and my brother's, and Biba has really been the key to skin.

04:03 Well, I never met my grandparents,

04:09 and my mom's mom, my grandmother,

04:13 used to make clothes for my mom when she was a girl.

04:16 She still had them when I was growing up,

04:18 and so I'd wear them, and I loved them,

04:19 and they were these cute little mod, boxy little dresses,

04:23 and I always loved those.

04:24 And I also, that was kind of the era of fashion

04:28 that I was kind of going for,

04:29 and that vintage-y, summertime Barbie.

04:33 Yellow was just, I don't know,

04:37 I didn't even, it was just in my, I don't know,

04:38 it was just what I pictured.

04:40 And then I had this random thought

04:44 that blue would also be good.

04:45 So I had this dress made in yellow and blue,

04:49 and then on the day,

04:50 held them up right there at the desk,

04:55 and yellow was the obvious choice.

04:57 But it's interesting how that works,

04:59 like the butterfly effect of could've been blue,

05:02 and something about that I think would've

05:05 weirdly changed how the video feels.

05:07 And I think it's really special to me that it's yellow,

05:10 and the earrings are yellow, and the rings are yellow,

05:12 and the hair is blonde, and the shoes are yellow.

05:16 And then also, the first little outfit

05:19 that I pull out is the yellow rain suit

05:22 that I wore for "Bellyache."

05:24 And that's also kind of special to me.

05:26 And also, yellow was the color that I used to wear

05:29 every single day when I was first known to anybody,

05:33 and I thought that was kind of special.

05:34 That was kind of my color.

05:36 All the little outfits that I pull out

05:37 are all specific looks that I've worn over my life

05:42 that have become, I don't wanna say iconic

05:46 about my own self, but even in my own life,

05:49 they are very sentimental to me

05:52 because of big moments in my life.

05:54 And I also wanted it to be kind of cutting off at 2020.

05:59 I want it to be everything before

06:00 this kind of more grown-up version of myself.

06:03 Talking about what would be the most interesting ones to use,

06:07 and what were the most special ones for me,

06:08 and what do I feel like the fans would think of

06:11 as the most special ones, and they are so cute and small.

06:15 For the making of the tiny minis,

06:18 it was Mattel, Sarah Paquette, and Liam Moore,

06:22 and they absolutely smashed it.

06:26 There's this one blue Gucci tracksuit

06:28 that I wore a couple times,

06:30 and I picked it up and I was looking at it,

06:32 and I was like, "Dude, this has all of the details

06:35 "of the actual outfit,"

06:37 including the little sock part of it,

06:39 and the waistband, and the hoodie, and the zipper.

06:43 Everything was so exact.

06:44 And some of them really needed to be that exact,

06:46 like when the party's over with the black goo on my shirt,

06:51 and the different chains,

06:52 and I have the one long chain that I used to wear,

06:54 and I have the little blouse chain in that.

06:56 They made a tiny little blouse chain.

06:58 And then Lovely as well.

06:59 When I shot Lovely, I just wore all black,

07:04 and I was like, "Get me a bunch of random bike chains."

07:07 This is when I was like 15, 16.

07:09 And I just had people bring piles of bike chains,

07:13 and regular random construction chains.

07:17 And I just took them and wrapped them around my body,

07:19 and over my shoulder, and around my waist,

07:22 and around my neck.

07:23 Having to recreate a random thing

07:26 that I just did in the moment when I was 16

07:28 on a tiny little doll was crazy,

07:32 and they nailed it.

07:33 And the little crown, so small.

07:37 So good.

07:42 I wanted the world to change,

07:43 and things to change around me,

07:45 and the world is falling apart

07:46 as I'm trying to keep these old versions of myself safe.

07:51 The fact that in one pass, everything went well,

07:56 and everything was manual.

07:57 All the wind was dudes standing there with fans,

08:01 turning them on at the right time.

08:03 The rain was a dude fucking turning it on at the right time.

08:07 The shake in the desk was a little machine inside

08:11 that we built a desk so that we could have this little drawer

08:15 with this little vibrating thing.

08:18 And this dude went, and it,

08:21 and it was all people doing everything,

08:23 and everything went perfectly somehow.

08:25 We did two takes.

08:27 We got it in two takes.

08:28 The second take is the one that we used,

08:30 which is like insane.

08:33 Pretty much for everything that I've made,

08:35 especially when it's like a one take or close to it,

08:38 usually in my parents' backyard

08:40 with my mother as the model,

08:42 the stand-in, let's say, I shoot the video.

08:47 I will go in the yard,

08:49 and I will make my mom sit somewhere,

08:51 and I will shoot her as me.

08:55 And it's incredibly helpful for me,

08:58 and it's incredibly, I think,

08:59 incredibly helpful for everybody else.

09:01 I'm very specific about when I want the camera to move,

09:04 and it's all very musical.

09:06 And sometimes, and there's nothing wrong with this,

09:09 but sometimes, you know,

09:11 DPs and editors and directors

09:14 aren't as musical as you'd think.

09:16 And I think that's like,

09:17 some people just, that music just,

09:19 they don't think with like rhythm,

09:22 and some people do.

09:24 And so for me, everything visual is all about rhythm.

09:28 The camera moves right with the music,

09:30 and right with the music, and stops with the,

09:32 you know, it's like, that's the main part of it.

09:36 And like growing up as a dancer,

09:37 that's just like how I think about things.

09:40 And I just wanna make that really clear,

09:42 so that I'm not leaving anybody in the dust,

09:43 and being like, I want this.

09:44 And they're like, here, I'm doing it.

09:46 And I'm like, well, that's wrong.

09:47 Like, stupid.

09:48 I wanna be as clear as possible,

09:49 and as least annoying as possible.

09:53 I think a one-take kind of is almost like a dance routine.

09:58 And it reminds me of like,

10:00 a dance routine to a full song,

10:03 where you start your routine at the beginning of the song,

10:06 and you dance with your choreography.

10:10 And then the song ends, and that's the end of your dance,

10:12 and you're not doing multiple different takes,

10:13 and you're not stopping and starting.

10:15 You're doing the full thing.

10:16 And yeah, I've never really thought of it that way,

10:18 but that's absolutely what it is.

10:20 That's so many people to have to be doing this dance

10:24 at the same time, including myself.

10:26 For a second, I was like, ooh, actually,

10:28 I'm like, oh, I'm like so focused

10:29 on all these different things,

10:30 that I like forgot that I should be doing stuff also.

10:33 That's the other thing with directing is kind of hard,

10:35 'cause you're like, okay, this is perfect,

10:38 that's perfect, this looks great.

10:39 And then you're like, oh, I'm on camera.

10:41 Like, I need to be doing something too.

10:42 And you know, I'm acting, you know?

10:44 That's what it is, I guess.

10:45 And acting is a whole other thing too.

10:48 So it's fully a dance, it really is.

10:51 I would love to direct for other people.

10:55 I would be very honored if somebody wanted me

10:57 to direct for them.

10:58 I just need time.

10:59 I just don't have time, girl.

11:01 I barely have time to make my own videos.

11:03 [upbeat music]

11:06 Playing a song for the first time live

11:11 since it's been out is like one of the scariest experiences

11:15 and one of my favorite things I get to do.

11:17 It was wild, yeah.

11:19 I played Lollapalooza in Chicago,

11:21 and it was gonna be my first time singing

11:23 What Was I Made For Live.

11:25 And not only that, but like,

11:26 it's truly like one of the hardest songs

11:28 I've ever written to sing.

11:30 And, oh boy, was your girl.

11:33 I don't really get nervous, but I was just like,

11:36 it's just really hard to sing.

11:39 It's very high and it's very soft,

11:42 and it's very back here.

11:44 It's like some serious shit.

11:46 And also, when you're on stage

11:49 and you can hear the overtones of the piano

11:51 in this giant area and the speakers

11:54 and the echo and the verb in the whole area

11:56 and all the fan singing, it's really hard to hear the key.

11:59 So I could barely hear the key that I was in,

12:01 and then I felt like I was flat and I was freaking out.

12:03 But aside from all of that, you look out

12:06 and it's thousands of kids literally bawling their eyes out

12:11 and singing the lyrics to a song that just came out.

12:16 It was mine and nobody knew it even existed.

12:19 And then suddenly thousands of people know it

12:21 and it means something to them

12:22 and that's just truly priceless.

12:24 It's crazy.

12:27 Getting to write this song was,

12:31 like I will be forever grateful

12:33 for being given the opportunity to write it

12:35 and then writing it because writing it

12:38 was incredibly cathartic for me

12:40 and incredibly important for my life.

12:44 And even if that song never came out,

12:46 I really needed to write that song.

12:48 And Phineas and I wrote that whole song

12:51 in pretty much a day.

12:52 I filmed the whole thing.

12:53 We have the whole video of us recording the entire song

12:56 on film and just getting to work with my brother

12:58 on everything is so special.

13:01 And especially with that song, he really sees me

13:04 and it's unfortunately rare to be seen,

13:08 especially by somebody who really,

13:10 who you love and loves you and really knows you.

13:12 It's like listening to it again

13:14 and I was truly like, this about me?

13:19 Like I guess it is.

13:21 I said earlier that I felt like Alexa Demi and Euphoria

13:25 when they're watching Lexi's play, she's like--

13:28 Wait, is this fucking play about us?

13:30 That was me listening to myself write a song.

13:33 The song is like being covered like nobody's business,

13:36 like constantly.

13:37 The way that this song has been received

13:40 has been astounding to me.

13:42 It's really, truly incredible and surreal.

13:46 Thank you so much, Allure.

13:48 Love you all.

13:49 I will see you Sunday.

13:51 Thanks for having me.

13:53 (blows kiss)

13:55 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended