Ellie Bamber’s star is on the rise. Known for her roles in Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, The Serpent and Willow, the actress has just been chosen to portray supermodel Kate Moss in the upcoming biopic, Moss & Freud.
The actress announced the news on Instagram, posting a photo posing with Moss in bed, a second photo of herself admiring Freud’s pieces on exhibit and an article of the news of her casting.
Moss is executive producing the film, which will recount her relationship with one of the most prolific 20th-century English portraitist artists, Lucian Freud. Academy Award-nominated Derek Jacobi (known for The Sandman, The Crown, The Kings Speech and Gladiator) has been cast to play the late painter.
GFG Films and Matthew Metcalfe are set to produce alongside Moss with the support of the Lucian Freud Archive.
With the help of Academy Award-winning screenwriter of The Phone Call James Lucas, the film will follow Moss’ time sitting for the painter at the height of her fame in 2002.
“After watching The Phone Call I knew that James would convey the emotion in the storytelling in a fitting way, one this memoir deserves,” Moss wrote in a statement, which was acquired by Variety. “Having been involved in the project and script development from the beginning I am now very excited to see the film come to life.”
Although Freud was known to avoid celebrity placements, the artist contacted Moss after reading an interview where she divulged one of her goals in life was to be a subject in one of his works. During her pregnancy with daughter Lila Grace Moss Hack, Freud painted the supermodel over a nine-month period.
Titled Naked Portrait 2002, the piece was purchased at Christie’s Auction House for 6.5 million in 2005, setting a record for Freud.
“He taught me discipline,” Moss recalled to photographer Nick Knight in a 2014 ShowStudio interview. “I could not be late. If I was five minutes late, he would kick off. But only once I was five minutes late, and he said, ‘Are you on drugs?!’ And I said, ‘No, I’m pregnant!’”
With her very own souvenir from the experience, Freud tattooed a pair of swallows on Moss’s lower back. Moss previously said of her iconic ink, “I mean, it’s an original Freud. I wonder how much a collector would pay for that? A few million?”
While we await more information on the film, like a release date, watch this space for updates.
