Gillian Anderson lands next lead movie role in "suspenseful" psychological thriller
Gillian Anderson will star opposite Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story's Rebecca Hall in a seductive new thriller.
Deadline reports The Portrait, from writer-director Sara Colangelo, will draw from the novel of the same name by Ilaria Bernardini.
Anderson will play Valeria, an internationally acclaimed author with a secret lover, businessman Martín, on the side.
When Martín is struck down by a sudden illness, Valeria is driven to desperation by his absence. She commissions a portrait from his artist wife, Hall's Isla, purely so she can infiltrate their home and make her way to his side.
The women circle each other, in what promises to be an electric pas de deux set within the confines of a luxurious London townhouse.
Colangelo had previously directed Maggie Gyllenhaal in 2018's The Kindergarten Teacher, in which a teacher becomes fixated on a student she believes to be a prodigy. The Portrait promises to deliver a similarly complex portrait of frustrated women seeking agency in their lives.
Producers Talia Kleinhendler and Osnat Handelsman Keren said in a statement: "The moment we read Ilaria’s brilliant book we knew Sara was the perfect filmmaker to bring this suspenseful, honest and surprising story to the screen.
"Along with the electrifying pairing of Gillian Anderson and Rebecca Hall that we know will guarantee powerhouse performances to bring these incredible characters to life in a stylish Hitchcockian thriller.”
Anderson, who recently starred in the satirical horror Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, shared with Digital Spy her affection for Steven Spielberg's 1977 sci-fi Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
"I think it was really impactful on me. I don't think it leads into X-Files. It was just as a standalone thing that just completely blew my mind on so many different levels," said the actor.
"Acting, directing, also the sci-fi element of it and the mystery thriller element of it, it was a really big deal for me. I think I just wanted to be in that world at that time on that journey, building the mashed potato or I wanted to be one of the kids. I wanted that so much."
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma sees Anderson in the role of Billy, the "final girl" star of an infamous slasher, who's visited by the director (Hannah Einbinder's Kris) hired to remake the film for modern audiences.
The pair, increasingly drawn to each other, initiate a sexual relationship as they explore the meaning of the film's enigmatic villain, "Little Death".
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