Billie Eilish’s big brother and key collaborator Finneas O’Connell is making progress on long-held dreams to break into the film and TV sectors of Hollywood, without the help of his famous sister – but it’s causing the pop star to panic as he’s moving on to do his own thing and leaving her to put out fires all by herself, a source tells Life & Style exclusively.
“Finneas isn’t getting into movies and TV out of nowhere – this has been a dream of his for a while and explains why he and Billie have done so much movie soundtrack work on top of their original recordings together: Finneas is the one between the two of them who is absolutely wild about movies and TV and loves working directly with filmmakers,” the insider explains.
The two-time Oscar winner, 26, was confirmed in May to be joining the cast of Peacock‘s new comedy series Laid, marking his biggest acting role yet.
“Finneas is starting with an acting job on a potentially very cool show and has ambitions to evolve into a writer, producer and director down the line,” the source reveals.
“This wasn’t an out of nowhere thing for Billie. She knew this was coming, but that doesn’t make it any easier and the idea of touring without Finneas, or God forbid recording without him, is something she knows she has to come to terms with eventually, especially if he finds real success with his TV and film interests,” the insider dishes.
While Billie, 22, is an international superstar, her older brother has been essential to her success as a collaborator and performer. They’ve won eight Grammy Awards together, and Finneas has two more trophies for Producer of The Year, Non-Classical and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Billie’s album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
The duo has two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Billie and Finneas took home the Oscar in 2022 for the James Bond theme song “No Time to Die,” and won again in 2024 for “What Was I Made For?” from the Barbie movie.
Finneas has co-written and produced nearly all of Billie’s biggest smashes, including, “Bad Guy,” “Bury a Friend,” “Everything I Wanted,” ”Happier Than Ever” and “What Was I Made For?” He has the sole producer credit on all three of her studio albums, including her latest, Hit Me Hard and Soft, which dropped on May 17.
“The process has started, and Billie has to adjust and make sure Finneas realizing his dreams doesn’t turn her world completely upside down. It’s easier said than done for somebody as sensitive as Billie, that’s for sure!” the source adds.
In 2020, Finneas told The Washington Post that he didn’t mind putting a solo career on the back burner in order to support his sister’s success.
“In the alternate reality where I wasn’t involved at all, and I’d been like, just, sweating my way through, trying to have a music career for years? And then my sibling had one and I wasn’t involved at all? I think I’d be very tortured by it,” he said. “But the fact that we’ve had one in tandem makes a lot of sense.”
Finneas started out as a child actor before Billie’s music career took off. He appeared as a student in the 2011 Cameron Diaz film Bad Teacher. As a teen, Finneas appeared in seasons 4 and 6 of Modern Family where he played a singer named Ronnie LaFontaine Jr. But as Billie’s career took off, the two focused on music as a team.
As of 2022, the multihyphenate said he was OK with Billie having the final word on what they created together.
“I always really firmly had this sort of, ‘Let’s have this be your name. You’re the star of the videos. The songs are about your life, and then I’ll do [my thing] separately,’” Finneas told Rolling Stone. “I’m not afraid to speak my mind, but I also have a feeling of when she’s like, ‘I hear what you’re saying, but I prefer the other way.’”
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