Billie Eilish is reportedly in advanced talks to make her big screen acting debut in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sarah Polley. The 24-year-old Grammy-winning singer would take on the lead role in the film, which is set to be released by Focus Features in the US.
Eilish has previously acted in the 2023 TV series Swarm, co-created by Donald Glover. In a Saturday Night Live monologue, she said: 'I used to say that I hated acting. But the truth is, when I was little, I loved it! My mom and dad were both actors. So is my brother, Finneas. And it was my dream to be in a movie.'
The Bell Jar, Plath's only novel, was published in 1963, a month before her death at age 30. It follows a young female writer grappling with mental illness in 1950s America. The Guardian's Robert McCrum named it the 85th best book of all time in 2015, describing it as 'a raw, unsettling book with flashes of brilliance'.
The novel was previously adapted into a 1979 film starring Marilyn Hassett, which received negative reviews. Later attempts with Julia Stiles and Dakota Fanning attached failed to materialise. Polley, who won an Oscar for her Women Talking screenplay, had been attached to a live-action Bambi remake but left the project. She has since written the screenplay for the family drama & Sons.
Eilish recently became the first artist to win the Grammy for Song of the Year three times and has won two Oscars for Best Original Song, for 'No Time to Die' and 'What Was I Made For?' from the Barbie soundtrack. A 3D concert documentary, Billie Eilish: Hit Me Hard and Soft, directed by James Cameron, is set for a May theatrical release.
