Ella Beatty nears Focus Features’ The Bell Jar
Deadline reports Beatty is in final talks to join Billie Eilish and Carey Mulligan in Sarah Polley’s Sylvia Plath adaptation.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Ella Beatty is close to adding another high-profile literary project to her fast-moving slate.
The actor is in final negotiations to join Focus Features’ film version of Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, according to Deadline, which cited sources familiar with the talks. Focus representatives declined to comment to the outlet.
Deadline reported that Beatty would join Billie Eilish and Carey Mulligan in the adaptation. Eilish is set to play Esther Greenwood, the novel’s central character, in what Deadline described as her film acting debut. Mulligan will play Esther’s mother.
Beatty’s potential role has not been disclosed, according to Deadline.
A Plath classic heads back to the screen
The Bell Jar is the only novel by American poet and writer Sylvia Plath. The semi-autobiographical book follows a young woman as she struggles with mental illness while facing the expectations placed on women around her.
The novel was first published in 1963. Deadline noted that the story reflected Plath’s own experiences with depression, and that Plath died by suicide one month after the book’s first publication in the United Kingdom.
In the United States, the novel became an immediate bestseller, according to Deadline. It has since been translated into more than 40 languages.
Sarah Polley, who won an Oscar for Women Talking, is attached to direct from a script she wrote herself. Deadline reported that Plan B, Studiocanal and Joy Coalition are among the producers.
Joy Gorman Wettels of Joy Coalition originated the project, according to Deadline. The outlet reported that she packaged it with Eilish and Polley, then teamed with Plan B and StudioCanal before Focus Features came aboard.
Beatty’s breakout run
Beatty is also leading the next season of Netflix’s Monster, the Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan true-crime anthology. Deadline previously reported that she won the role after a wide casting search across multiple countries.
The coming installment centers on Lizzie Borden, whom Deadline described as an alleged Massachusetts axe murderer. Beatty appears in the season with Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps, according to the outlet.
Her screen career began only a couple of years ago with FX and Hulu’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. Deadline also noted that Beatty is Juilliard trained.
Beatty most recently appeared with Rose Byrne and A$AP Rocky in Mary Bronstein’s A24 drama If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, according to Deadline.
Onstage, she recently starred Off-Broadway opposite Hugh Jackman in Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes. She is also due to appear in Sophia Takal’s psychological thriller Act One, which Deadline said recently had its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival.
Beatty is represented by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Jackoway Austen Tyerman, according to Deadline.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.