Lily-Rose Depp is heading into one of the most recognisable and controversial settings in American pop culture: the Playboy Mansion.
The actress has been cast as Anna in Playmates, an upcoming coming-of-age drama from Searchlight Pictures. The film will be the feature directorial debut of Lorraine Nicholson, daughter of Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson, who has also written the screenplay. The project was announced by Searchlight in September 2026. (TheWrap)
Despite its provocative setting, Playmates is not a Hugh Hefner biopic. Instead, the story centres on 13-year-old Elle, played by Indiana Elle, a self-described know-it-all who considers the Playboy Mansion her second home. There she meets Anna, one of seven women hoping to become Playmate of the Month, played by Depp.
The pair develop an unlikely friendship and decide to help each other pursue what they want most. For Anna, that means achieving a coveted magazine cover. For Elle, it means winning over a boy. The film is therefore being positioned primarily as a coming-of-age story rather than a straightforward examination of Hefner or the Playboy brand. (TheWrap)
Bill Pullman is attached to play Hugh Hefner, bringing the real-life founder of Playboy into the story. However, available details suggest Hefner is part of the world surrounding the characters rather than the central protagonist.
What makes the project particularly unusual is Nicholson’s personal connection to its setting. She has previously written about growing up around the Playboy Mansion and visiting regularly from childhood until she was around 11. Her 2024 Vanity Fair essay described the mansion as a place where many of her childhood friends lived and where she encountered Playmates, Hefner’s children and the adults who surrounded the property. Those memories are now informing her first feature film. (Yahoo News Malaysia)
For Depp, Playmates adds another strikingly different role to an increasingly eclectic filmography. Following Nosferatu, she is also set to reunite with director Robert Eggers for Werwulf and appears in the science-fiction comedy Alpha Gang. (TheWrap)
The film is produced by Alex Orlovsky and Duncan Montgomery of High Frequency Entertainment alongside Depp herself. Searchlight has acquired the project, but no official release date has been announced yet.
With Depp entering the Playboy universe, Nicholson transforming her extraordinary childhood surroundings into fiction, and Pullman stepping into Hefner’s famous robe, Playmates is already shaping up to be one of the more unexpected additions to Depp’s upcoming slate.