Charli XCX’s post-BRAT glow-up is officially underwaym and it includes strings and some self-reflection.
The “Von dutch” singer sat down with Gwyneth Paltrow for a new episode of The Goop Podcast, and their chat delivered everything fans could hope for: charisma, candor, and just enough unfiltered energy to warrant a glass of wine while listening.
Life After BRAT
After the massive success of her genre-bending album BRAT, Charli says she’s ready to shake things up again. “I really like to work in contrasts,” she told Paltrow. “Whatever I do next will just inherently be different to BRAT because that’s what feels natural.”
While BRAT leaned into messy pop maximalism, her next project might surprise even her most devoted fans. “I’m exploring a lot of stuff with strings at the moment, which I’m really enjoying, and I haven’t really worked in that space before,” she said.
Charli also revealed that her cinematic ambitions are taking shape. Her upcoming A24 film, The Moment, will arrive early next year and is described as “a revisionist history of BRAT… sort of like a music industry satire.”
Redefining Creativity
After over a decade in music, Charli confessed that she’s been craving new outlets for her creativity. “I’ve been making music since I was 14,” she said. “I love making music, but there was a point where I was like, OK, I need to exercise my creativity in a different way.”
That new direction includes acting, with roles in Faces of Death and I Want Your Sex on the horizon, and a renewed appreciation for film. “I don’t really listen to much music,” she admitted. “I’m always watching films.”
Her perspective on pop culture is equally reflective. “There’s a lot of luck with timing and the way that culture moves,” she said. “When I released BRAT, people were craving something that felt real and messy, and that’s where I was.”
On Womanhood and What’s Next
The conversation also turned personal when Charli reflected on her BRAT track “I Think About It All the Time,” which explores the uncertainty around motherhood. Married to The 1975 drummer George Daniel since July, she said she’s still unsure about what that future looks like.
“There’s still a bit of stigma around women who don’t want children,” she said. “I swing between the two. Right now, I’m on the side of ‘I’m not sure that’s for me,’ but that could change.”
Charli Meets Goop
And in true Charli fashion, she capped the chat by knighting Gwyneth Paltrow a “365 Partygirl.” “You’re a 365 partygirl, I loved it,” she told the Goop founder. It was the kind of playful pop-culture crossover that makes the internet collectively swoon.
As for what’s next? Charli’s entering a new chapter, one that trades club chaos for cinematic storytelling and orchestral experiments. Whatever she does, expect it to feel “very real and messy,” in the best way possible.
