Julia Stiles to take on Sylvia Plath's 'The Bell Jar'
October 4th 2010 06:02
Every now and then, a talented actor or actress will drop off the Hollywood radar and I start to wonder what's been happening in their world. Most of the time they're either taking a break from the craziness to focus on their private lives, or are deeply involved in a movie project that is taking years to create. With Julia Stiles, it's the latter - she's currently working on a film adaptation of The Bell Jar, and has been since 2007. Stiles will not only be playing the lead character of Esther Greenwood, but will also be taking on the role of producer for the film, which is scheduled for a 2012 release.
For those who haven't read The Bell Jar, the story is a darkly humorous and occasionally disturbing first-person account of one woman's battles with depression. Esther Greenwood is a very bright, ahead-of-her-time college student of the 1960s, who finds herself disillusioned with life and uncertain of what her future holds.
After a bizarre internship with a popular New York-based women's magazine, several weeks of chronic insomnia and a failed attempt at writing a novel, Esther spirals into a deep melancholy that eventually sees her committed to an asylum after several attempts at suicide.
Notably, the author herself committed suicide just a few weeks after The Bell Jar was published. But this is not to say that the book itself is depressing: quite the contrary! Plath's poetic genius transfers itself beautifully into prose - her trademark wit, irony, and cutting sarcasm all remaining perfectly intact.
Stiles agrees with this analysis, adding that the imagery and ideas presented within The Bell Jar are excellent fodder for a movie adaptation. "I don’t think it’s depressing at all. It is about depression," says the actress of Plath's only novel.
"I think that a lot of people think of Sylvia Plath as being this dark, brooding soul because of her history, and her biography overshadows her writing," Stiles continues. "Actually, her writing was different than that. I think that the vibrant images that she describes in The Bell Jar are perfect for a film, maybe even more so than a novel."
Stiles says that she's planning to steer clear of the way the story was told in the 1979 film adaptation (starring Marilyn Hassett), which she feels was too dark in its portrayal of the realities of depression.
"I saw [the 1979 movie] and I don’t want it to be anything like that, with all due respect to the people that worked on it," the 29-year-old said. "Stylistically, the way they shot it was very dark, and the images in The Bell Jar call for something like what Julie Taymor did with Frida, [which demonstrate] that intense artistic drive that Sylvia Plath had, and that Esther Greenwood has in the book.
"Esther has a strong outlook on life, and we’re really looking to bring out the humour in the character," Stiles said. "We don’t want to do a depressing descent into the world of suicide."
According to IMDb, Stiles' adaptation of The Bell Jar will be directed by the relatively unknown Nicole Kassell, and will be in cinemas sometime in 2012. As for Julia Stiles, she'll be hitting our TV screens very shortly, as the new love interest for Dexter Morgan in the fifth season of the hit show Dexter.
Stiles has also written a letter regarding the novel's latest adaptation to Carol Christ, the president of Smith College, where Sylvia Plath graduated in 1955. You can read it here.
Julia Stiles: 'I wouldn’t have spent this much time trying to set up the movie if I didn’t love it.'
For those who haven't read The Bell Jar, the story is a darkly humorous and occasionally disturbing first-person account of one woman's battles with depression. Esther Greenwood is a very bright, ahead-of-her-time college student of the 1960s, who finds herself disillusioned with life and uncertain of what her future holds.
After a bizarre internship with a popular New York-based women's magazine, several weeks of chronic insomnia and a failed attempt at writing a novel, Esther spirals into a deep melancholy that eventually sees her committed to an asylum after several attempts at suicide.
Notably, the author herself committed suicide just a few weeks after The Bell Jar was published. But this is not to say that the book itself is depressing: quite the contrary! Plath's poetic genius transfers itself beautifully into prose - her trademark wit, irony, and cutting sarcasm all remaining perfectly intact.
Stiles agrees with this analysis, adding that the imagery and ideas presented within The Bell Jar are excellent fodder for a movie adaptation. "I don’t think it’s depressing at all. It is about depression," says the actress of Plath's only novel.
"I think that a lot of people think of Sylvia Plath as being this dark, brooding soul because of her history, and her biography overshadows her writing," Stiles continues. "Actually, her writing was different than that. I think that the vibrant images that she describes in The Bell Jar are perfect for a film, maybe even more so than a novel."
Stiles says that she's planning to steer clear of the way the story was told in the 1979 film adaptation (starring Marilyn Hassett), which she feels was too dark in its portrayal of the realities of depression.
"I saw [the 1979 movie] and I don’t want it to be anything like that, with all due respect to the people that worked on it," the 29-year-old said. "Stylistically, the way they shot it was very dark, and the images in The Bell Jar call for something like what Julie Taymor did with Frida, [which demonstrate] that intense artistic drive that Sylvia Plath had, and that Esther Greenwood has in the book.
"Esther has a strong outlook on life, and we’re really looking to bring out the humour in the character," Stiles said. "We don’t want to do a depressing descent into the world of suicide."
According to IMDb, Stiles' adaptation of The Bell Jar will be directed by the relatively unknown Nicole Kassell, and will be in cinemas sometime in 2012. As for Julia Stiles, she'll be hitting our TV screens very shortly, as the new love interest for Dexter Morgan in the fifth season of the hit show Dexter.
Stiles has also written a letter regarding the novel's latest adaptation to Carol Christ, the president of Smith College, where Sylvia Plath graduated in 1955. You can read it here.
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