‘100 Nights of Hero’ Director on Giving Charli Xcx Her First Movie Role and Casting Singer Before ‘News Had Broken That She Was Interested in Acting’

Brat Summer isn’t going away anytime soon.

After being officially labeled the Fifth Greatest Pop Star of 2024 by Billboard, Charli XCX’s bid to become a legit film star (OK, she had a voice role in “The Angry Birds Movie”) is about to have an explosive start. Two features in which she stars are premiering almost simultaneously. But that’s not all. Over the horizon are five more buzzy films starring the singer, including one she’s actually producing.

Yet none of these projects had been announced when Julia Jackman first spoke to Charli about appearing in her period fantasy “100 Years of Hero,” debuting in Venice as the closing film of the Critics’ Week sidebar.

“It was before the news had broken that she was interested in acting,” the director admits. “It was a very pleasant surprise when someone said to me: I think she might vibe with the film.”

So, despite initial fears over what could be considered stunt casting (“I was like, she is one of the famous people in the world right now,” recalls Jackman), the two met before Charli played Glastonbury in the summer of 2024 and vibe with the film she did.

“She had brought her iPad and her notes and was very open and keen to not force things,” says Jackman. “And as we were speaking, I heard her dry sense of humor and there was a shyness and demureness I wasn’t expecting. So I felt that she could be perfect to play this mythical fairy-tale figure.”

Based on the graphic novel by Isabel Greenberg (which Jackman first discovered almost a decade ago), “100 Nights of Hero” is a feminist queer fantasy about two women defying a deeply patriarchal world. But Charli wasn’t the only big-name casting for the filmmaker — and in only her second feature (after 2023’s “Bonus Track”). In lead roles are Maika Monroe, playing a neglected wife who — with the help of Emma Corrin’s sharp-witted maid — must fend of the advances of a dashing Nicholas Galitzine. Felicity Jones, meanwhile, pops up as the moon (and narrates).

Jackman admits she was in continuous shock as each major name said yes, but says she came to see that, for her cast, this little low-budget indie film offered something not just different to what they’d done before, but also an “intimate counterbalance” to their studio work.

“There was the feeling that we were all discovering new territory together,” she says. “Because it’s a tricky tone — a fantastical black comedy with a lot of death in it. And I don’t think it would have worked if they all weren’t having so much fun with the material.”

For Galitzine’s “villainous charmer,” Jackman even worked his follow-up project into the film. The Brit went straight from “100 Nights of Hero” to another fantasy setting — playing He-Man in Amazon’s upcoming live-action “Masters of the Universe” — and off-set would be constantly working out to get into shape as the sword-wielding hero.

“So in one scene I just had him doing push ups — because that’s exactly what his character would have done when alone in room,” says Jackman.

As it turns out, while “100 Nights of Hero” may have been the first film to officially cast Charli as she spreads her acting wings, it misses out — just — on being the first to be seen by the public.

The premiere for “100 Nights of Hero” is on Sept. 5 in Venice. “Erupcja,” in which she stars alongside Jeremy O. Harris and was announced a month after “100 Nights of Hero,” has its premiere in Toronto on Sept. 4.