Oscar winner Billie Eilish recalls thinking ‘I won’t amount to anything’ aged 12

By Ellie Iorizzo, PA Los Angeles Correspondent

Billie Eilish has said she felt like a “failure” at the age of 12 after watching Matilda on Broadway.

A decade later and the US singer-songwriter picked up her second Academy Award, alongside her brother Finneas O’Connell, winning the prize for best original song for ballad What Was I Made For? from box office juggernaut Barbie.

“I remember being 12, believe it or not, and seeing this musical and sobbing my eyes out and thinking ‘damn I’m a failure’. I was watching Matilda on Broadway, it was amazing,” Eilish said in the winners room.

“I was balling, (thinking) I am never going to amount to anything because I am not in Matilda.

“Just give yourself some time, do what you love and I know that is easier said than done, some of us don’t know what we love. You’ll figure it out.”

The brother and sister won their first Academy Award in 2022 for their song No Time To Die from the James Bond film of the same name.

After thanking her teachers in her on-stage acceptance speech, Eilish gave advice to young people in the winners room.

She said: “Don’t do it for other people, don’t do it for the numbers or for some sort of specific thing, that is not really ever something anyone should be looking for.

“I want everyone to be doing something they feel passionate about and proud of and makes them feel like the best version of themselves.”

Eilish added that Greta Gerwig’s film Barbie made “a lot of people feel very seen, that can be rare, especially as a woman”.

The pair performed the Oscar-winning song during the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.