Billie Eilish Opened Up About Her 'Exhausting' Tourette's & How She Handles Her Tics
"These are things you would never notice."
Billie Eilish.
Billie Eilish explained how she fights through her tics caused by Tourette's syndrome in a new interview with David Letterman, after she was interrupted by an on-camera tic while shooting an interview for My Next Guest Needs No Introduction on Netflix.
Eilish explained how her tics work during the interview, and added that it's "exhausting" to deal with them all day.
"I never don't tic at all, because the main tics that I do constantly, all day long, are like, I wiggle my ear back and forth and raise my eyebrow and click my jaw (...) and flex my arm," she told Letterman in the interview, which is now on Netflix.
"These are things you would never notice if you're just having a conversation with me, but for me, they're very exhausting," she added. “If you film me for long enough, you’re gonna see lots of tics,” she said.
The conversation came up after Eilish had a tic during the interview.
In the episode, Eilish suddenly turned her head and opened her mouth while cradling a mug.
"What's going on? A fly?" Letterman asked.
"No, I'm ticcing," she said.
He then asked if she wanted to discuss it.
"I actually really love answering questions about it," she said.
She told Letterman that she has "made friends with it" and that the tics are part of her identity, although some people don't understand it when they see her deal with one.
"The most common way that people react is they laugh because they think I'm trying to be funny," she said. "And I'm always left incredibly offended by that," she said.
Eilish said she was diagnosed at the age of 11, and it started with wiggling her ear.
"Tics are so weird."
She added that she doesn't tic "at all" when she performs, rides her horse or concentrates on something. Her key is to keep moving.