Michelle Williams in Talks to Play Janis Joplin in Upcoming Biopic
Can she pull it off?
The short and tragic life of ’60s rock legend Janis Joplin will officially be given the film treatment, sure to go after awards season and audiences’ tears alike. What’s more, three-time Academy Award nominee Michelle Williams (no, not the singer) is in early talks to star in the project, marking the second time the actress has taken on a doomed real-life character.
Williams may not be the most obvious choice (she looks nothing like Janis Joplin for one, and who knows if she’ll be doing her own singing in the film?). But similar concerns were raised when Williams agreed to the role of Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn, for which she eventually secured her third Oscar nomination.
Directed by Sean Durkin, Janis will be based on sister Laura Joplin’s book Love, Janis, which featured genuine letters from the singer and detailed her life from her troubled upbringing to her struggles with drugs and alcohol at the peak of her fame.
News of Williams’s casting should be music to Joplin fans’ ears, but one person likely won’t be celebrating: actress Amy Adams. Adams was set to star in a separate Joplin biopic titled Get It While You Can, production on which has been halted indefinitely due to a lawsuit involving its writer.
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