Ten-time Grammy winner and two-time Oscar winning songwriter Billie Eilish is in advanced talks to make her acting movie debut in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s "The Bell Jar".
Multi-Grammy and Oscar winning singer-songwriter Billie Eilish looks set to make her big screen acting debut in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s classic novel "The Bell Jar".
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Eilish is reportedly in advanced talks to take on the lead role in the project, Deadline reports. The film will be directed by Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley.
Polley directed the 2012 documentary Stories We Tell, in which she explored her family’s secrets, and won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking in 2023. Her other directorial credits include Take This Waltz and Away From Her.
As for Eilish, she previously acted in a 2023 episode of the satirical dark comedy TV series Swarm, co-created by Donald Glover.
"The Bell Jar" was first published in 1963 and is the only novel by Plath, who died by suicide a month after the roman à clef was published.
Widely considered to be semi-autobiographical, the book follows Esther Greenwood, a gifted 19-year-old undergraduate who is awarded a prestigious internship at a New York fashion magazine. Greenwood gradually descends into depression as she struggles with identity and societal expectations for women.
It was adapted only once on the screen in a 1979 film directed by Larry Peerce and starring Marilyn Hassett as Esther Greenwood.
In April 2007, it was announced that Julia Stiles would star in an adaptation, but the project fell through due to lack of funding. In 2016, a project meant to be directed by Kirsten Dunst was announced, but it was ultimately shelved.
Eilish has hit headlines recently for her criticism of the Trump administration. When accepting the Song of the Year award at this year’s Grammys, she condemned the actions of ICE, following the deaths of civilians Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
“No one is illegal on stolen land,” she said. “I feel like we just need to keep fighting and speaking up and protesting, and our voices really do matter, and the people matter. Fuck ICE.”
She has called ICE a “federally funded and supported terrorist group” - a comment that led the US Department of Homeland Security to respond, calling Eilish’s description “garbage rhetoric”.
Eilish has also urged her fellow celebrities to speak up against ICE, reposting a list 32 people who reportedly died in ICE custody last year.
