Billie Eilish is eyeing the lead role in an upcoming adaptation of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar for her feature film debut, Rolling Stone has confirmed.
Set in the In 1950s, The Bell Jar chronicles teenage student Esther Greenwood as she grapples with intense mental health struggles. The character is sent to a psychiatrist, bounces around mental institutions, and attempts to dismantle her learned understanding of traditional gender roles.
The release will be directed and adapted by Sarah Polley. According to Deadline, Polley and Eilish are attached to the project with producer Joy Gorman Wettels’s Joy Coalition. The publication stated that Eilish would play Greenwood. The InSneider was the first to report the rumor of Eilish’s casting.
Polley’s latest projects include 2022’s Women Talking, which won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Pablo Trapero’s & Sons (2025), which she wrote. The Bell Jar adaptation will be produced by Plan B Entertainment and StudioCanal along with Gorman Wettels. Focus Features is in talks to distribute.
Eilish first made her acting debut in Swarm, the dark comedy miniseries created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover. Fittingly, the artist played a cult leader who takes an interest in the unstable, pop-star obsessed young woman Dominique Fishback portrays. “She understands storytelling at such a young age,” Glover, who cast Eilish in the series, told Rolling Stone in 2024. “And she’s authentic to her experience. I feel she’s living her life for herself.”
Still, at 24, Eilish is already a two-time Academy Award winner. She was awarded Best Original Song in 2022 for “No Time to Die” from No Time to Die and in 2024 for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie.
Acting was always an interest for Eilish, she told Variety in 2023, but “it’s always been a deep thing that I’ve been reluctant to talk about because I thought I was really bad.” Later this year, Eilish will make her feature directorial debut alongside James Cameron with Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D).
Michaela Coel in ‘The Christophers.’Claudette Barius/NEON
