Billie Eilish will be in Toronto this summer making her acting debut in an adaption of Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical 1963 novel The Bell Jar — about a young woman’s descent into mental illness – to be directed by Canada’s Sarah Polley.
Set in the 1950s, The Bell Jar charts the story of Esther Greenwood (Billie Eilish), a young woman from the suburbs of Boston, who wins a summer internship at a prominent women’s magazine in New York City.
While she tries to embrace this newfound freedom, she finds herself neither stimulated nor excited by the city’s glamorous culture and lifestyle. Struggling with the expectation that girls her age should idolize this world, she is unable to reconcile her conflicted feelings.
As her time in New York counts down, she can’t escape her memories of an idyllic childhood turned on its head, of Buddy – her hometown first love – and of the rising wave of anxiety at the thought of a future life without real meaning.
The poet and author Sylvia Plath tragically committed suicide not long after the novel’s publication.
The Bell Jar:
Toronto filming dates: June 25 2026 – August 07 2026.
Director: Sarah Polley.
Cast: Billie Eilish.
Producers: Plan B Entertainment, StudioCanal UK, Focus Features,