Billie Eilish makes acting debut in Donald Glover’s new series, Swarm

Walking in the same footsteps of Lady Gaga before her, musician Billie Eilish is looking to parlay her successful music career into one on the small screen, with her role in the Amazon Prime Video series Swarm, by Atlanta creator Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino.) Eilish was cast as Eva, a creepy cult leader who has parallels to the recent NXIVM controversy. 

Set between 2016 and 2018, Swarm tells the story of Dre (Dominique Fishback), an obsessed fan of fictional Beyoncé-based pop star Ni’Jah who goes on a murder spree against anyone who dares to speak badly about her favourite artist. In Episode 4, one of Eva’s followers helps Dre get out of a situation with a cop and brings her to Eva’s compound, which presents itself as a “female empowerment” commune.

Eilish isn’t the only surprise performer in Glover’s streaming series, currently the talk of the town across gossip blogs; Paris Jackson appears in a cameo role in the series, as does Rory Culkin, who given his ominous role in Jonas Akerland’s Lords of Chaos should feel right at home in the series in a role we’re not ready to spoiler for you yet - we’ve done that enough.

Swarm debuted on March 17 2023 on Amazon Prime Video and has received positive reviews from critics, who praised the screenplay, direction, cinematography, soundtrack, and balance between its bright, vivid aesthetic and its elements of psychological horror. 

Fishback's performance in the series has received widespread acclaim, while the guest performances of Chloe Bailey and Billie Eilish have also received popular praise.

So it’s one-for-one when it comes to Billie Eilish’s success in what could be the start of a prolific filmography given she’s almost done everything there is to do in the music world. What were the roles that made television and cinema critics take notice of musicians who started to carve their names across another medium? 

David Bowie - The Man Who Fell to Earth

With cameo roles in a few British productions beforehand, The Man Who Fell To Earth was legendary performer David Bowie’s first sizeable role in film. He played the titular character, who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought, but finds himself at the mercy of human vices and corruption.

Such was the depth of Bowie’s cocaine use during this stage of his career (known as the “Thin White Duke” era of his long enduring musical career), Bowie confessed once that he was happy that he did the film, but had no recollection of actually filming the movie. In an issue of Movieline in 1992, he said “I was virtually ignorant of the established procedure [of making movies], so I was going a lot on instinct, and my instinct was pretty dissipated. I just learned the lines for that day and did them the way I was feeling. It wasn't that far off.” 

“I actually was feeling as alienated as that character was. It was a pretty natural performance... a good exhibition of somebody literally falling apart in front of you. I was totally insecure with about 10 grams [of cocaine] a day in me. I was stoned out of my mind from beginning to end.”

Madonna - A Certain Sacrifice

Before inviting everyone to get into the groove with her star-turned-role in Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985, Madonna made her cinematic debut six years earlier in Stephen Jon Lewicki’s arthouse film A Certain Sacrifice.

Madonna played Bruna, a Lower East Side resident who lives with three "love slaves" (one woman, one man, and one trans woman). Bruna meets Dashiell in the water fountain in Washington Square Park and the two "fall in love". Bruna later tells her lovers she does not need them anymore, resulting in them attacking Bruna in a controversial scene.

The release caused controversy in the press at the time, due to its sexually explicit and violent content, with Juli Salamon for The Wall Street Journal stating the film was a “[...] Kind of a long MTV video with thinly developed themes of sadomasochism and ritual violence". 

That second-to-last theme would be something Madonna would infamously adopt ten years later into her glittering musical career. 

Lady Gaga - The Sopranos

We’ve discussed Lady Gaga’s performances on the silver screen before, but she made her acting debut in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in HBO’s celebrated television series The Sopranos.

In episode 9 of the show’s third season, “The Telltale Moozadell”, Gaga played one of the girls present as AJ Soprano and his friends break into the school swimming pool and trash the area in an act of teenage delinquency. She was credited under her real name, Stefani Germanotta, but once you spot her in the scene you can’t unsee her.

She would follow this up 12 years later with her first sizable acting role, playing one of the guises La Cameleon dons in the Robert Rodriguez film “Machete Kills.”

Beyonce - Carmen: A Hip Hopera

Some might think that Beyonce’s first film role was opposite Mike Myers in the final Austin Powers film, Goldmember. But as it turns out, before becoming Foxy Cleopatra in a glorious send-up of ‘70s blaxploitation, she starred opposite Mekhi Phifer in the 2001 television film, Carmen: A Hip Hopera.

Produced by MTV in 2001, criticism was levied at Beyoncé's movie debut performance and in the book Carmen: From Silent Film to MTV, authors Chris Perriam and Ann Davies wrote that "Beyoncé ... is an accomplished, virtuoso singer, and she has difficulty bending her particular talents to spoken delivery".

They were all plaudits for Mehki Phifer though, who they stated "has proven himself elsewhere an effective actor for television and film, but he seems to be uncomfortable here either rapping or singing".

Kelly Clarkson - From Justin to Kelly

A harsh lesson learned by Kelly Clarkson and her fellow American Idol contestant, Justin Guarini; your popularity on a reality television series might not translate into your popularity in a movie role. 

In defence of the pair, the writing for From Justin to Kelly wreaked of a quick cash in on the popularity of the pair after the debut season of American Idol. It earned itself a slice of pop culture infamy though, winning the Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst 'Musical' of Our First 25 Years" in 2005. It was also a contractual obligation after winning American Idol, Clarkson revealed in a 2006 Time interview: “I knew when I read the script it was going to be real, real bad, but when I won, I signed that piece of paper, and I could not get out of it."