Carey Mulligan has reportedly signed on to star opposite Billie Eilish in a new feature from Focus Features. The casting pairs the three-time Oscar-nominated actor with the global music superstar, who is making her film acting debut.
Carey Mulligan joins Billie Eilish in The Bell Jar
Mulligan will play Mrs. Greenwood, mother to Eilish’s protagonist, Esther Greenwood, sources told Variety. Focus Features are yet to formally announce The Bell Jar, and representatives for both Mulligan and the studio have not yet commented.
Sarah Polley, who won an Academy Award for writing Women Talking, will direct the film. Plan B, Studiocanal, and Joy Coalition are producing. Rumours also point to Heated Rivalry actor Connor Storrie joining the cast, though no official confirmation has been given.
Moreover, the casting news comes after a busy stretch for Carey Mulligan. She recently got an Emmy nomination for the second season of Netflix’s Beef, where her performance opposite Oscar Isaac drew widespread acclaim.
A three-time Oscar nominee for An Education, Promising Young Woman, and Maestro, Mulligan was also shortlisted for a BAFTA this year for best supporting actress in The Ballad of Wallis Island.
On the other hand, Billie Eilish’s leap into acting draws on a career already laced with cinema. She remains the youngest two-time Oscar winner, collecting Best Original Song trophies for “No Time to Die” in 2022 and “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie in 2024. Her sole scripted screen appearance to date was an episode of the Prime Video series Swarm.
Now, the Bell Jar movie will mine Sylvia Plath’s 1963 semi-autobiographical novel as its primary source material. The book’s story traces Esther Greenwood’s breakdown as a gifted college student navigating 1950s America, confronting suffocating expectations around marriage and motherhood before her mental health spirals. A 1979 adaptation directed by Larry Peerce, starring Marilyn Hassett and Julie Harris, remains the novel’s only previous screen version.
