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Focus Features has confirmed the cast for Academy Award winner Sarah Polley‘s “The Bell Jar,” starring Billie Eilish.
Eilish, a two-time Oscar-winning singer-songwriter, makes her film acting debut playing Esther Greenwood,
the protagonist of Sylvia Plath’s classic novel. Plath’s semi-autobiographical story follows as the aspiring young writer landes a magazine internship in New York City and chronicles her struggles with ambition, identity and mental health amid the stifling societal expectations for women in the 1950s.
Production has wrapped on the film, which Polley (“Women Talking”) directed from her own adapted screenplay. The filmmaker assembled an acclaimed supporting cast to join Eilish, including Oscar- and Emmy-nominee Carey Mulligan, whom Variety exclusively reported signed on to play Esther’s mother, Mrs. Greenwood.
Also confirmed to star are Gotham Award winner Danielle Deadwyler s Dr. Nolan, Esther’s psychiatrist; Actor Award winner Ike Barinholtz as Lenny, a wealthy NYC radio host; and “Heated Rivalry” breakout Connor Storrie as Marco, whom Esther is set up with on a horrifying blind date. Dylan Hawco (as Buddy Willard, Esther’s first boyfriend), Lili Taylor (Jay Cee, editor of Ladies’ Day magazine), Ella Beatty (Joan, an old acquaintance who ends up at the same mental hospital as Esther) and Maggie Kuntz (Doreen, Esther’s best friend in New York and a fellow intern) are also featured in the ensemble cast.
“The Bell Jar” is produced by Plan B, Studiocanal and Joy Coalition. Focus will distribute the film, with a release date to be announced.
Polley is represented by WME, GGA, and Circle Management + Production and Eilish is represented by WME, Sandbox Entertainment, High Rise PR and Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman, Inc.
Mulligan is represented by Julian Belfrage, CAA, and Jackoway Austen et al; Deadwyler is represented by Paradigm, Play Management and Ziffren Brittenham; Barinholtz is represented by UTA, Artists First, and Jared Levine from Morris Yorn Barnes Levine Krintzman Rubenstein Kohner & Gellman; and Storrie is represented by CAA, Linden Entertainment, Shelter PR, and Yorn Levine.
Hawco is represented by GGA, Gersh and Circle Management + Production; Taylor is represented by Independent Artist Group, Untitled Entertainment and Schreck, Rose, Dapello, Adams, Berlin & Dunham; Beatty is represented by Entertainment 360 and CAA; and Kuntz is represented by Verve and The Rozenzweig Group.
