Are You Ready for Billie Eilish's Moviestar Era?

What do you do when you’re one of the most beloved musicians of your era, a generation-defining popstar with two Oscars, ten Grammys, and 20 Guinness World Records to your name? Well, of course you have to become an actress. Billie Eilish has dipped her toes into movies. She got James f**king Cameron to direct her tour documentary (in 3D!) and her songs have been used in films like Barbie. Now, she’s got her first starring role, and it’s one hell of a project to make your cinematic debut with.

Eilish will play Esther Greenwood, the protagonist in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Yup, we’re finally getting that film (yes, there was one in the ’70s but nobody remembers it.) The sole novel written by Plath, it’s a semi-autobiographical drama about a young woman’s struggles with mental illness as she tries to make a name for herself in New York City of the 1950s.

Some of the most beloved women in Gen-X, millennial, and Gen-Z cinema have spent the best part of two decades trying to get this adaptation of the ground. Julia Stiles was attached for a while. Then Kirsten Dunst was going to direct it with Dakota Fanning in the lead. Then it was going to be a miniseries with Frankie Shaw. Now, it’s in production with the Oscar-winning writer-director-actor Sarah Polley. She feels like such a perfect fit for The Bell Jar, especially after the excellent Women Talking. Also reportedly signed onto the film are Carey Mulligan, who will play Esther’s mother, and Connor Storrie, who’s got to fill out his schedule until Heated Rivalry season two.

But what about Billie? She’s done a tiny bit of acting in the Amazon series Swarm but this is a hefty role that will require one hell of a performance. Clearly, Polley sees something in her beyond the intriguing parallels between young women’s struggles of the ’50s and now, which Eilish often feels emblematic of. Plenty of singers have made the leap to acting, some with great success, like Lady Gaga and David Bowie. Others, less so. Did you know Rita Ora acts?

This is also a tough book to adapt. It’s dryly written but deeply traumatic in places, full of dark humour and moments of almost uncanny oddness as Plath tried to capture the true sense of losing one’s mind. It could easily veer into soap opera or melodrama without a strong driver in charge. There’s a reason nobody remembers the version from the ’70s.

I’m excited for this, as a Plath fan, a Polley fan, and someone who has a lot of respect for Eilish’s art. I appreciate her decision to go on hard mode for her movie debut and I hope it works out. We could use a good film of The Bell Jar right now. We’re all feeling a bit angsty these days, right?