{"id":517676,"date":"2026-03-11T20:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/517676\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T20:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T20:02:08","slug":"billie-eilish-to-make-movie-acting-debut-in-sylvia-plaths-bell-jar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/517676\/","title":{"rendered":"Billie Eilish To Make Movie Acting Debut In Sylvia Plath’s ‘Bell Jar’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: Ten-time Grammy winner and two-time Oscar winning songwriter Billie Eilish<\/a> is in advanced talks to make her acting movie debut in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath\u2019s classic novel, The Bell Jar<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tOscar winner Sarah Polley<\/a>, known for movies including Women Talking and Away From Her and for writing series Alias Grace, is attached to direct the feature, which Focus Features<\/a> is closing a deal to back and distribute in the U.S. <\/p>\n

\n\tPic is being produced by Joy Gorman Wettels\u00a0(Little House on the Prairie, 13 Reasons Why), Plan B Entertainment, and StudioCanal.\u00a0Gorman Wettels originated the project through her company Joy Coalition, packaging the project with Eilish and Polley and partnering with Plan B and StudioCanal ahead of Focus boarding. Script comes from Polley.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Bell Jar\u00a0is the only novel written by American writer and poet Plath. Originally published in 1963, the semi-autobiographical work charts a young woman\u2019s descent into mental illness and the burden of societal pressures. The book paralleled Plath\u2019s own experiences with depression; the writer tragically died by suicide just\u00a0a month after the novel\u2019s first UK publication. In the U.S., the book became an instant best-seller, and has since been translated into more than forty languages. Eilish will play lead character Esther Greenwood.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe material feels like a good fit for dark pop queen Eilish, known for her soulful and introspective lyrics and songs. No plans at this stage for Eilish to contribute music to the project, but that could be nice if it came to pass.<\/p>\n

\n\tEilish won Best Original Song Oscars in 2022 for No Time To Die and in 2024 for Barbie. Aged only 22 in 2024, she\u00a0became the youngest two-time Oscar winner in history and is the only Oscar winner born in the 21st Century.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe only significant previous film adaptation of the movie came in 1979 when Larry Peerce directed Marilyn Hassett and Julie Harris. Julia Stiles was attached to star in a version in 2007 but it ultimately didn\u2019t come to pass. Likewise, Kirsten Dunst was attached to direct a version with Dakota Fanning a decade later but that also fell by the wayside. It was reported in 2019 that Showtime was developing a series version with Frankie Shaw but that was soon abandoned too.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe bones of the project and Eilish\u2019s potential involvement was teased today by The Insneider. Above are the confirmation and details, which have been in the works for a while.<\/p>\n

\n\tEilish is represented by WME and Sandbox Entertainment. Polley is represented by WME, GGA, and Circle Management. Gorman Wettels is repped by Nina Shaw at Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein Lezcano Bobb & Dang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Ten-time Grammy winner and two-time Oscar winning songwriter Billie Eilish is in advanced talks to make her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[20378,236,88,3098,62916,4938],"class_list":["post-517676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-billie-eilish","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-focus-features","tag-sarah-polley","tag-the-bell-jar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}