Selena Gomez may have found herself a new co-star for her upcoming X-rated film with Oscar-winning auteur Brady Corbet. According to Deadline, British actress Sadie Soverall is being eyed for a lead role in the star-studded project, which is rumoured to be a four-hour historical epic.
The up-and-coming ingénue, 24, got her Hollywood break with a supporting role in Emerald Fennell's Saltburn before starring alongside Nicolas Cage in Arcadian.
While the 24-year-old has yet to officially sign on for Corbet's project, Deadline says that she's the director's top choice. If she takes the role, the young star will join Gomez, along with A-listers Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender.
Blanchett herself recently dropped a major hint at the Cannes Film Festival, saying she is 'about to work with Brady Corbet on a film,' while Fassbender's involvement was revealed just days earlier, per Variety. Fassbender is certainly no stranger to sex scenes, with the Irish actor famously flaunting his manhood in 2011's Shame.
British actress Sadie Soverall is being eyed for a lead role in Oscar-winning auteur Brady Corbet's upcoming X-rated film. Blanchett also has a few raunchy roles under her belt, including the lesbian period drama Carol and the psychological thriller Notes on a Scandal.
The project, rumored to be titled The Origin of the World, is said to unfold largely in the 1970s, with Corbet previously teasing its 'X-rated content' in a 2025 interview. He also hinted the film could stretch to around four hours, revealing at the Storyhouse Screenwriting Festival in Dublin that the script runs to roughly 200 pages.
Corbet's The Brutalist already raised eyebrows with a 165-page script and a sprawling three-and-a-half-hour runtime - but this new project looks set to push things even further. 'The film spans from the 19th century into the present day - it's just predominantly focused on the 70s. The film is really, really genre-defying,' Corbett said in 2025, per Variety.
In keeping with its outsized ambition, the production is also reportedly being shot using rare eight-perf 65mm cameras. The project will mark Corbet's fourth feature as a director, following The Childhood of a Leader, Vox Lux, and last year's Oscar contender The Brutalist. Behind the scenes, he also continues to collaborate with Mona Fastvold, having produced her film The Testament of Ann Lee.
Selena Gomez's casting in the film has raised eyebrows due to her squeaky clean Disney past. Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender are also set to star in the project. The edgy new role may not come as a total surprise to fans who have watched Gomez steadily distance herself from the squeaky-clean Disney image that first made her famous.
In 2023, the star admitted she finally felt liberated from the pressure that came with growing up under the Disney spotlight after rising to fame on Wizards of Waverly Place. 'I definitely feel free of it,' Gomez told Variety at the time. 'Sometimes I get triggered. It's not that I'm ashamed of my past, it's just that I've worked so hard to find my own way. I don't want to be who I was. I want to be who I am.'
Soverall, 24, got her Hollywood break in Saltburn and will next be seen in Amazon Prime's Every Year After. The eyebrow-raising casting news also comes just days after Gomez's husband, Benny Blanco, found himself fielding some very personal questions about their relationship. During a recent episode of his Friends Keep Secrets podcast, the 38-year-old music producer was put on the spot by co-host David 'Lil Dicky' Burd, who pressed him about the couple's sex life.
'I'm not allowed to talk about that publicly,' Blanco replied awkwardly. 'Oh, she made you sign one?' Burd joked back, seemingly suggesting Gomez had him locked into a non-disclosure agreement. 'No. I'm just, like, a gentleman,' Blanco insisted before stumbling through the explanation. 'Kinda just, like, a thing I do. I'm a gentleman or something. I don't know,' he added.
