Billie Eilish in Talks for The Bell Jar Lead Role

Billie Eilish is in advanced talks to make her feature film acting debut as the lead in an adaptation of Sylvia Plath's seminal 1963 novel The Bell Jar, directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sarah Polley.

The project, which Polley is also adapting for the screen, marks her first feature since Women Talking, for which she won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay in 2023. Producers include Joy Gorman Wettels through her company Joy Coalition, alongside Plan B Entertainment and StudioCanal. Focus Features is finalizing a deal to handle U.S. distribution.

The Bell Jar, Plath's only novel and originally published under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, is a semi-autobiographical account of Esther Greenwood, a young woman navigating societal pressures and a descent into mental illness during a magazine internship in 1950s New York City. The story draws parallels to Plath's own struggles with depression; she died by suicide at age 30, just a month after the book's United Kingdom release. It was not published in the United States until 1971, where it quickly became a bestseller and a cornerstone of feminist literature, translated into more than 40 languages.