(Eventually) I said, “You know, that’s actually a thing that happens in the movie, that she floats, and then one day she doesn’t float anymore and she falls down.” And my girlfriend was like, “Oh, really?” We got lucky that Greta put a great image in the movie, and we could use it. ![]() And she would hear me playing the song around the house over the next couple of months. And my girlfriend didn’t see the movie until the premiere in July. This is all back in January of this year. Billie and I went and saw the movie, and then wrote what we wrote the next day. It felt like somebody else put a spell on me, and then I saw a couple days later what the outcome was.įilm songs have a special resonance when the lyrics directly relate to what’s in the film, although it’s a fine balance of how many lines in the song can be that specific and how many should be more general.įinneas: We were making a song for the movie, and so I don’t think we had any fear, to that end. Then a couple days later I was like, “Oh, this is me and my story.” It was pretty jarring, to be honest. ![]() I was just like, “Wow, I feel such a strong connection to this, but I don’t know why.” When we were writing the song, we weren’t thinking about our own lives. You’re like, “Oh, let me speak from this character’s perspective,” and you say something that you maybe weren’t even brave enough to say about yourself.Įilish: What was funny about this one was that it was this character that I really did relate to, but I didn’t even realize that I was relating so much. And then of course, the other thing that’s funny is that you set out to write a song about Barbie for the “Barbie” movie and end up writing, in Billie’s case, exactly how she feels. When you’re writing a song that you feel has to be autobiographical and touches on how you really feel and speak to your soul, you could be coming up with the best lyric but you’re like, “Yeah, but it wasn’t in December!” - that kind of goofy, nitpicky thing. The first is that it gets you out of your own way. Add to this the unrelentingly serious music video Eilish directed for the song, and it’s clear just how much heaviness “What Was I Made For?” brings to the movie, and soundtrack… but it’s a weight Greta Gerwig’s film was meant to bear.Įilish and Finneas spoke with Variety from their studio in Los Angeles.ĭo you feel that assignment writing is a good thing for you, creatively?įinneas: I think it’s a like twofold positive. ![]() But they also took the cue for the opening lines from the first hints of Barbie’s existential crisis in the film’s opening.Ī possibly even more haunting couplet - “I’m sad again, don’t tell my boyfriend / It’s not what he’s made for” - recognizes that sometimes the people in our lives may not be emotionally intelligent Ken-ough to deal with someone else’s moments of depression. ![]() She and Finneas were inspired by the penultimate scene in which Barbie embraces being all that is human - anxiety and mortality included. That may not be everyone’s all-consuming experience of the mostly comedic “Barbie,” but for a good segment of the audience, the doll movie is a tear-jerker, and its emotional climax is signaled by the arrival of Eilish’s tender, yearning ballad, which gave the main character the “heart song” filmmaker Greta Gerwig felt was missing from the movie. What the fuck is Billie doing on the soundtrack? Why is there going to be a sad song? That doesn’t make any sense.’ And I remember just being like, ‘Guys. “I remember everybody being like, ‘What the hell? It’s gonna be a fun, cute, girly, pink movie for the summer and we’re all going to be laughing. Billie Eilish remembers being aware there were some puzzled - or just wary - reactions when a song she and Finneas co-wrote, “What Was I Made For?,” was one of the last tracks announced for the “ Barbie” soundtrack.
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