Halsey talked about landing a role in the upcoming slasher flick MaXXXine and how a spider in the audition room helped the get the part in the latest episode of their For the Record show on the Amp app.
The singer, who makes their acting debut in the SXSW hit Americana, first noted that they were “really exciting” and “super stoked to be a part of my first A24 movie.”
“I was super nervous because obviously I’m a huge fan of the franchise. I loved X and I loved Pearl,” Halsey said. “I wanted to tell you guys a funny story about my audition and how I ended up getting the part.”
“So I went in and I auditioned just like anybody else. And I was in the audition room with the casting agent, and all of a sudden everybody kind of started freaking out a little bit because there was a spider in the room,” Halsey said. “And so I walked over and pick the spider up by its leg and put it in my hand and just took it out the door of the audition room and through the casting agency and out to the front and put it in a bush and then I walked back and everybody was kind of like, ‘Okay, you’re a freak.’”
Halsey continued, “But I told them, as some you guys might know, I’m a witch and spiders are good luck, having a spider in the room is good luck, and I told them, this is a great sign for me. I’m actually really happy about it because it’s good luck for me. And then it turns out he was, because I ended up getting the part and I was so exited about it. So I have to thank my little spider familiar friend because he did a little extra manifesting to help me get it.”
The singer added that they might get a tattoo to commemorate the good luck spider that crashed their audition.
MaXXXine — which begins filming this month and follows the events of the 1979-set X by accompanying Mia Goth’s porn star Maxine to Los Angeles in the Eighties — marks Halsey’s second big-screen appearance following their “stunning” debut in the crime film Americana, which premiered at the 2023 SXSW.
“That Halsey more than holds her own amid such a talented cast is a good sign of what’s to come,” Rolling Stone wrote of Halsey’s acting. “Their performance doesn’t strike a false note, even when the story takes some unexpected twists and hairpin turns. And anyone who’s seen her music video work was already well-aware that the ‘Without Me’ chanteuse can hold a close-up.”
Halsey also previously voiced a character in Sing 2 and cameoed as herself in A Star Is Born.