Isabella Rossellini joins Wallis Simpson biopic ‘The Bitter End’
Academy Award nominee Isabella Rossellini has joined the cast of the upcoming Wallis Simpson biopic, The Bitter End, which will see Golden Globe winner Joan Collins play the American socialite in her final years, many decades after marrying the Duke of Windsor and inspiring his abdication of the British throne.
The film will be directed by Four Weddings and a Funeral director Mike Newell with a screenplay from novelist Louise Fennell.
Rossellini will play Suzanne Blum, a French lawyer who became Simpson’s confidante in her later years and ultimately became coercive and controlling. The story will centre on their dynamic, revealing how Blum turned Simpson’s once lavish life into a fearful, lonely end.
In a press release, Rossellini said, “I am absolutely thrilled to join the incomparable Joan Collins and the brilliant Mike Newell in bringing this extraordinary story back to life”.
Adding: “Louise Fennell’s script allows us to delve into the complex and devastating relationship between these two iconic women, the profound impact they had on one another and their lasting mark on history.”
The actor is in the midst of a career resurgence after earning an Oscar nomination for her brief but pivotal role in Edward Berger’s Conclave. In the film, she plays a nun who breaks her silence in a key scene to speak truth to power. It is a moving performance and a turning point in a film made up almost entirely of male characters.
The Bitter End will be produced by John Gore, Richard Holmes and Francis Hopkinson and executive produced by Hilary Strong, Michael Foster and Percy Gibson. Filming will begin in the UK in May 2025.
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