ADELE TO MAKE ACTING DEBUT IN FILM ABOUT CASTRATED SINGER
Adele is set to make her acting debut in a film directed by Tom Ford about a castrated opera singer.
The Grammy-winning Someone Like You singer will star in the fashion designer-turned-filmmaker’s new film, Cry to Heaven.
The 37-year-old will be joining a cast which includes Colin Firth, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Mark Strong. Owen Cooper, the 15-year-old breakout star of Adolescence, will also feature, according to Deadline, the US showbiz news website.
Ford will direct, produce and write the adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1982 novel, which is set in the 18th-century world of the “castrati” – male sopranos who were castrated to preserve their high voices.
The film is currently in pre-production in London and Rome and is set for release in the autumn of next year.
The American, who was creative director for Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, is reportedly self-financing the project and plans to find a buyer after the production is complete.
News of Adele’s participation in the project comes a year after the British singer announced she would take a “big break” from music.
The best-selling vocalist, who is a mother of one, described her tank as “empty” after spending two years playing a weekend residency in Las Vegas.
Speaking to the German broadcaster ZDF about her plans for an extended break in July last year, she said: “I don’t have any plans for new music at all. I want a big break after all this and I think I want to do other creative things just for a little while.
“You know, I don’t even sing at home at all. How strange is that?”
Adele released her most recent album, 30, in November 2021, marking a comeback after five years. It was created in the aftermath of her divorce from Simon Konecki, the father of her son.
Her acting debut had previously been linked to the 2018 film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan after working with award-winning director Xavier Dolan on her Hello music video.
The Brit School alumni said at the time: “[Dolan] said I was quite good. I had to cry and everything. You know what, I feel like a bit of a c--- after saying for all these years I’d never act, because I really enjoyed it … Maybe after what Xavier said, I’ll go into acting.”
‘The clock is ticking’
However, despite rumours she would appear in the movie, she did not but one of her songs did make the film’s final cut.
Cry to Heaven will mark Ford’s third film, following the Oscar-nominated A Single Man (2009), which also featured Firth, and the 2016 thriller Nocturnal Animals starring Amy Adams.
The director, who is among the most celebrated fashion designers in the world, has previously said he wanted to turn his singular focus to film.
Speaking to GQ magazine in 2023, he said: “I loved making the two films that I made.
“That was the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’m 62. Hopefully, I’ll remain somewhat together until 82. So I wanna spend the next 20 years of my life making films.”
He said “the clock is ticking,” meaning it was “time to say goodbye to fashion”.
2025-11-12T18:10:45Z