Back in 2023, a movie called Americana featuring Halsey premiered at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and scored 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Then it was never heard from again — until now.
Collider has a first look at the movie, including a photo of Halsey looking out the window with blood spattered across their face, and photos of the film’s stars Sydney Sweeney and Paul Walter Hauser. Collider also reports the movie will arrive Aug. 22.
Halsey plays Mandy Starr, the girlfriend of a criminal who’s come into possession of a Native American artifact called the Lakota Ghost Shirt. Sweeney and Hauser play a waitress and a cowboy who team up to steal the shirt, but things get complicated when Mandy takes it for herself.
In a sneak preview that was released back in 2023, we see Halsey filling up their car at a gas station while Hauser’s character tries to distract them. Meanwhile, Sweeney sneaks up behind them, sticks a gun to their back and asks if they have the artifact. “F*** you,” says Halsey. “Shoot me.”
Halsey then drives away as Sweeney jumps into Hauser’s truck and they take off after them.
While Americana wasn’t Halsey’s first movie, it was the first regular theatrical film in which she starred on camera as a specific character. Previously she voiced characters for the animated movies Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and Sing 2. She also played herself in a cameo in A Star Is Born.
Since filming Americana, Halsey appeared in the 2024 movie MaXXXine. She’s currently developing a TV series for Prime Video that’s described as a “dark comedy.”
Coincidentally — or perhaps not — Halsey’s first charting single was called “New Americana.”
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