Released today, Apple TV+’s documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry highlights many of the personal aspects of Billie Eilish’s young life. With only a few sit-down interviews and set to the constant soundtrack of her music, the film at times feels like a collection of home movies or a fuzzy recollection of touring and recording. Eilish doesn’t hesitate to address the lows of the past few years, including her struggles with depression, Tourette’s syndrome, and physical injuries, but above all else, the film emphasizes Eilish’s teenagerdom. Director R.J. Cutler doesn’t let you forget how young she is — we see her getting her driver’s license, struggling in relationships, and fighting with her (frankly, adorable) parents. And while Eilish herself said the film is just a “sliver” of her life, here’s a rundown of everything we learned from The World’s a Little Blurry.
She got her dream car at her album-cover photo shoot.
Around her 17th birthday, her family surprises her with her dream car, a matte-black Dodge Challenger, at the photo shoot for her first full-length album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? The sports car is topped with a neon-green bow to match, though Eilish’s mom assures the camera that it’s equipped with every safety feature possible.
Her parents are a little protective.
After Eilish gets the car, she’s gotta get her driver’s license (hello, Olivia Rodrigo), and her parents are right there at the DMV to cheer her on. As she’s set to take her first drive to visit then-boyfriend Brandon “Q” Adams, her dad gives her The Lecture on Safe Driving. “The rules of law still apply,” he says. “It’s not now you get to speed and do all kinds of stupid shit … you’ve learned to drive and you’ve been coached and helped and tested in order to be sure that you’re going to be a sober, sensible driver.” The talk is helped by Mr. O’Connell’s soothing voice, clear-framed glasses, and killer mustache.
Her ankle injury is much worse than reported.
Eilish struggles with her ankles throughout touring, at one point having to wear special shoes and shin splints so her feet won’t move around. In Milan, Italy, she tears ligaments in her ankle while jumping during the very first song of the concert and runs offstage. She then has to wear a medical boot and go through physical therapy and electrical stimulation.
Her Tourette’s can be triggered by exhaustion.
Though she’s spoken about it publicly before, Eilish shows more of her struggle with Tourette’s syndrome in the documentary, including tics of moving her head that come on when she becomes tired. She also mentions one of her tics makes her bite down, which once caused her to break a glass in her mouth.
She had a secret boyfriend who didn’t come see her after her Coachella set.
Eilish reveals that she secretly dated Q, a singer, for more than a year. In the film, we see the couple holding hands while ice-skating at her 17th-birthday party and saying “I love you” on the phone. She brings him to Coachella and asks to see him after her performance because she was upset she forgot some of the lyrics to “all the good girls go to hell.” “Can’t you see me?” she says on the phone. “What do you mean, ‘try’?” She then tosses her phone across the room. Later, Eilish says the couple broke up because they wanted different things in life. “I don’t think you should be in a relationship, super excited about certain things that the other person couldn’t care less about. I don’t think that’s fair to you. I didn’t think it was fair to him,” she says. “And there was just a lack of effort, I think. I literally was just like, ‘Dude, you don’t even have enough love to love yourself, you can’t love me, and you don’t.’” This just proves you can be an actual pop star and men still won’t get it.
She cried into Justin Bieber’s arms for five minutes when she met him.
Speaking of Coachella, Eilish meets her idol Justin Bieber at Coachella the night after her set. She initially runs away from him, hiding her face in what looks like a confetti cannon. She then hugs Bieber and cries into his arms. On the car ride back to the hotel, Eilish recites where and when he was born (though she can’t tell you when and where she was born). “He just stood there and looked at me,” she said, and began to cry again. “With his eyes!” Bieber then sends her a sweet text message, saying, “It’s moments like tonight where I’m reminded what I mean to people. Your love for me touched my heart. You are so special, not for what you can do, but for who you are. Remember that. I’m so impressed by your aura and presence. You carry a heavy calling. You are an idol to so many. I’m excited to watch you flourish. You are beyond special. Thank you for tonight. It meant just as much to me as it meant to you.”
She doesn’t know who Orlando Bloom is when she meets him.
Coachella is a big weekend for Eilish. She also gets to meet Katy Perry and “her fiancé,” whom she later finds out is Orlando Bloom by googling a photo of him in Pirates of the Caribbean.
She has struggled with self-harm and depression.
In one scene, Eilish flips through pages of her journal, which is home to song lyrics and illustrations of her nightmares. One page in particular features lyrics about self-harm from a time which she says was the “peak” of her depression. “I was like 14, 15. I had razors hidden in places and I had Band-Aids hidden in a little corner of my room, and I always had Band-Aids on my wrists,” she said. “I was literally locking myself in the bathroom and making myself bleed because I thought I deserved it.”
She will make music seemingly anywhere but a recording studio.
Much has been written about the fact that Eilish and her brother, singer Finneas, recorded her debut record in Finneas’s childhood bedroom. But the documentary also shows Eilish recording her Bond song, “No Time to Die,” on her tour bus, and finishing up When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? in a hotel room. Maybe her sophomore album will be recorded in the matte-black Dodge Challenger?
