It’s the top of an period! Greater than a 12 months after brat summer season took the world by storm, this winter is all about Charli XCX in Park Metropolis, Utah, as she sheds that pop icon persona for an onscreen pivot.
Because the Sundance Institute prepares to uproot its 45-year movie pageant subsequent 12 months, the 3x Grammy winner headlined a double-feature on Friday on the Eccles Theatre, the place the world premieres of Gregg Araki’s directorial return, I Need Your Intercourse, and writer-director Aidan Zamiri’s characteristic debut, The Second, each occurred, each that includes memorable performances from Charli.
“Proper now, not like the me in [The Moment], I’m kind of actually wanting brat to cease,” she mentioned, eliciting laughs from the gang on the mockumentary’s debut. “And truly actually pivot as far-off from it as attainable. And that’s not as a result of I don’t adore it, it’s simply because I believe for all of us as artists, you wanna problem your self.”
In I Need Your Intercourse, Araki’s first characteristic in a decade, Charli struts her comedic chops as Minerva, a personality the director described because the “bitchy American girlfriend” of Cooper Hoffman’s Elliot, who takes a job as artist Erika Tracy’s (Olivia Wilde) sexual muse. Homicide and questionable energy dynamics ensue on this star-studded intercourse romp.
Noting that Charli is definitely in three motion pictures at this 12 months’s pageant, together with Cathy Yan’s The Gallerist, and that Wilde can also be headlining her personal double-feature with The Invite, which she starred in and directed, Araki raved on the pink carpet, “That is just like the Charli XCX, Olivia Sundance, and we’re all simply glad to be right here.”
Instantly following I Need Your Intercourse, Charli debuted her onscreen opus in director Aidan Zamiri’s The Second. A meta mockumentary a few rising star embarking on her first enviornment tour, the movie explores Charli’s meteoric success by a hyper-pop comedy concerning the absurd nature of fame and the battle to take care of her sense of id and inventive freedom.
“Clearly, this movie is concerning the finish of brat summer season,” famous Zamiri after the screening. “However hopefully, everybody can in a roundabout way discover the way it pertains to them and the phobia of letting one thing go.”
Followers don’t must look far for the similarities in Charli the character and Charli the real-life pop star, who took a day without work from her nonstop brat tour to hitch Araki’s proficient younger ensemble, which incorporates Mason Gooding and Chase Sui Wonders, in addition to a roster of some acquainted Araki collaborators.
Rish Shah, Alexander Skarsgard, Rosanna Arquette, Jamie Demetriou, Aidan Zamiri, Charli XCX and Isaac Powell at Deadline’s Sundance 2026 Portrait Studio on Jan. 23, 2026 in Park Metropolis, Utah
Josh Telles/Deadline
“She got here to set proper after acting at some stadium. It was unbelievable, it was so implausible,” recalled Hoffman of filming with Charli. “And he or she did this complete lengthy, unbelievable present, after which confirmed up and killed it. She performs my girlfriend who doesn’t wish to have intercourse with me, and he or she’s hilarious.”
With The Gallerist making its premiere on Saturday, it’s been a busy 12 months for Charli, who along with wrapping up her brat tour, delivered standout performances in movies like Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero, Pete Ohs’ Erupcja and Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice. If the reception at Sundance is any indicator, Charli may have no downside including “film star” to her intensive resume.
Charli defined that as an artist, “you wanna completely change the form of inventive soup you’re in and go and dwell in a special bowl for some time, and simply really feel enriched by that. And I believe that’s how I really feel concerning the tasks I’m taking over in movie. I actually simply wish to work with these unbelievable administrators, like Aidan, Gregg Araki, Cathy Yan, who I really feel like I can simply dwell fully totally different lives with.”
