Musician Billie Eilish is looking to make her big acting debut by taking a main part in Sarah Polley‘s adaptation of “The Bell Jar,” the Sylvia Plath book that is getting the feature film treatment, as the singer has been enlisted to play Esther Greenwood.
In the report hailing from Deadline, they add that a bidding war saw Universal‘s Focus Features coming out on top, and they’re currently ironing out a deal for domestic rights for the pic produced by Plan B and StudioCanal. The semi-autobiographical work published in 1963 “charts a young woman’s descent into mental illness and the burden of societal pressures.”
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An official logline for the original novel via Amazon:
Esther Greenwood is a beautiful and immensely talented young lady who dreams of being a great writer. As a college student, she travelled from Massachusetts to New York to work on a magazine for a month as a guest editor. While there, she is showered with fancy dinners and elite networking. Esther knew she should be having the time of her life, but something was wrong, and she felt deadened. Little did she know that this was the beginning of a clinical depression that would take all sense of life out of her. After a visit from a beloved professor, she starts to believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Months of treatment later, Esther leaves the mental hospital in time to start college. She now knew that life would be a seesaw of good and bad days, and the bell jar could ring either with sadness or elation; she just needed to hear it jingle and practice what she learnt. The Bell Jar is an intimate and uplifting narrative written with the expert stroke of the finest writers of the century, meant to make the reader feel supported and hopeful in their journey.
Polley is set to both write and direct “The Bell Jar,” after making waves with her acclaimed drama “Women Talking,” which helped her land an Oscar statue for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2023. The former Canadian child actor who starred in the long-running series “Road To Avonlea” and had a key part in Zack Snyder‘s “Dawn of the Dead” remake would move into filmmaking. She had recently played herself in a hilarious episode of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg‘s “The Studio,” where she was trying to get a perfect shot that kept getting spoiled by Rogen’s studio executive character.
Eilish has been hanging around in the film world for a while now after providing Oscar-winning tunes for both “No Time To Die” and Greta Gerwig‘s “Barbie” movie. She also recently linked up with director James Cameron for an upcoming 3D concert film coming out soon from Paramount Pictures.
Other female pop stars such as Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Cardi B, and Charli XCX have been stretching their legs within the acting world over the years, so we shouldn’t be terribly shocked by Eilish’s acting ambition. This seems like a move not that different from when Lady Gaga signed-on for Bradley Cooper‘s “A Star Is Born,” it remains to be seen if Eilish is going to end up delivering an awards caliber performance (its certainly the kind of meaty role that could be life changing for any actress), mind you there will still be plenty of people going to keep an eye on “The Bell Jar” as it’s become a very tantalizing partnership between Polley and Eilish.
Ten years ago, Kirsten Dunst attempted to make “The Bell Jar” her directorial debut with Dakota Fanning in the part that Eilish is set to portray.
Cameron’s “Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard & Soft: The Tour (Live In 3D)” is being unleashed in theaters on May 20, so fans will have something to hold them over until “The Bell Jar” arrives.
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