According to Deadline, 10-time Grammy winner and two-time Oscar-winning singer/songwriter Billie Eilish is in advanced talks to make her film acting debut as Esther Greenwood in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s classic novel, The Bell Jar.
The only novel written by the celebrated poet, published in 1963, The Bell Jar is the semi-autobiographical work charting a young woman’s descent into mental illness amid the burden of societal pressures. Plath died by suicide a month after the novel’s first UK publication.
Only the second significant adaptation since Marilyn Hassett starred in 1979, Oscar winner Sarah Polley will direct the film.
Julia Stiles was on board to star in a version in 2007, which didn’t happen. Dakota Fanning was announced as the lead a decade later, but that was also shuttered before filming began. It was reported in 2019 that Showtime was developing a TV series with Frankie Shaw, which was also abandoned.
Eilish, with her brother and co-writer Finneas O’Connell, won Best Original Song at the Oscars in 2022 for No Time To Die and in 2024 for Barbie. Aged only 22 in 2024, she became the youngest two-time winner in Oscar history.
At press time, there’s no word on whether Eilish be writing any music for her latest big-screen venture.
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Author: Saul Goode
Photo: Justin Higuchi