Halsey talks about “MaXXXine”, acting ambitions and how she directs Cher

Halsey attends the world premiere of A24’s “Maxxxine” on June 24, 2024 at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

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Halsey may be best known for her success in the music industry, but the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter has been taking her first steps in Hollywood for some time now. She made a cameo appearance in Bradley Cooper’s A star Is Bornappeared in Cameron Crowe’s rocker series Roadiesvoiced a leading role as Porsha Crystal in the animated Singing 2and played alongside Sydney Sweeney in Tony Tost’s previously unreleased crime western American.

But with MaXXXine — the third and final entry in filmmaker Ti West’s horror trilogy from A24 to X And pearl — Halsey fully immerses herself in the Hollywood world, playing Tabby Martin opposite leading lady Mia Goth’s Maxine Minx. The film centers on Maxine, the sole survivor of the bloody massacre on a remote Texas estate that takes place in the original film. Xheads to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s to pursue her dream of big screen stardom. As she makes her way through the industry, Maxine must confront her past while a nighttime stalker terrorizes the city. Halsey’s Tabby is a friend of Maxine’s who is also determined to make it big at a dance club.

“I was a huge fan of the first two films and I liked Ti as a person overall,” Halsey explained to The Hollywood Reporter while I was standing in front of Hollywood’s TCL Chinese Theatre in front of the MaXXXine World premiere on Monday evening. “I actually just met with Ti to talk about films, music and everything else. MaXXXine kind of came up and I told him I’d love to audition. He said, ‘Great, send me a tape.’ But I didn’t think I was going to get it.”

Despite her self-doubt, Halsey went ahead and recorded herself on tape. Much to her surprise, she received a call back. “I was like, ‘Shut up! Are you kidding me?’ Then I started to panic because I realized I actually had to do it.”

When asked about her preparation process, Halsey explained that she drew on her roots as a New Jersey native and complemented them with a certain East Coast attitude – and accent.

“I had very little information, but I knew that my character, Tabby, worked at a dance club. She was part of a really unique group of people, vulnerable women who are targeted in some ways. One of the things that struck me about Tabby was that she really wants something great to happen to her. She’s looking for that moment, that burst of confidence. So I made her a girl from New Jersey, because I could remember when I was a kid and I thought, one day that’s going to be me. One day something good is going to happen to me. Then I just put a little emphasis on it and it all fell into place.”

She’s also incorporated some musical influences. “Sometimes there’s a lot of Annie Lennox and Debbie Harry, these more alternative girls of the time who are really tough. Tabby doesn’t need anyone to protect her. Well, she does need someone, but she doesn’t think she does. She’ll basically kick your ass if you try to do it with her.”

In addition to taking inspiration from some music icons for her on-screen work, Halsey also took inspiration from superstars for her red carpet ensemble on Monday night. “It’s very Hollywood,” the 29-year-old artist explained of her look, a gold sequin dress by Bronx and Banco. “I wanted a little bit of late ’70s, early ’80s Cher, you know what I mean? The big hair and the silhouette with the belly bared and a little bit of Grace Jones on the face with the eye makeup. I kind of took my cues from those divas that were changing the times in the late ’70s and catching up with the ’80s.”

Besides Goth and Halsey, MaXXXine The film stars Lily Collins, Elizabeth Debicki, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan, Sophie Thatcher, Moses Sumney, Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon. As with all of his films, West wrote, directed, produced and edited the film. His producing team also includes Goth, Jacob Jaffke and Kevin Turen.

Now with MaXXXine Halsey is ready to officially call Hollywood home, as her film is set to hit theaters on July 5. “I have some pretty exciting projects coming up and I’m excited to announce them in the next few months when the time is right. But this is definitely going to be more than just a tourist venture for me. This is a place I really want to explore,” she said. “I love telling stories in any form. Songwriting and making an album is inherently storytelling, and acting is just an extrapolated version of that.”