Lily-Rose Depp to Star Opposite Bill Pullman as Hugh Hefner in ‘Playmates’
By Alexus Mosley
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Lily-Rose Depp is heading to the Playboy Mansion.
The actress has been tapped to star in Playmates, a new coming-of-age drama written and directed by Lorraine Nicholson. Bill Pullman will play Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, while rising actress Indiana Elle will play 13-year-old Elle.
The film centers on Elle, a self-described know-it-all who considers the Playboy Mansion her second home. There, she meets Anna, played by Depp, one of seven women hoping to become Playmate of the Month.
The two strike up an unlikely friendship and decide to help each other get what they want most: for Anna, a magazine cover and, for Elle, a boy. But the most interesting part may be the woman behind the camera.
Playmates marks Lorraine Nicholson’s feature directorial debut, and she also wrote the screenplay. Nicholson, the daughter of Jack Nicholson and Rebecca Broussard, has a particularly unusual connection to the story: she spent much of her childhood visiting the Playboy Mansion.
In a 2024 essay, Nicholson recalled regularly going to the mansion from the time she was born in 1990 until she was around 11, describing it as a place where many of her childhood friends spent time. That experience now serves as inspiration for her first feature film.
Searchlight Pictures has acquired the project, which brings together a pretty fascinating mix of Hollywood generations: Depp stepping into the role of an aspiring Playmate, Pullman transforming into Hefner, and Nicholson turning one of the stranger chapters of her childhood into a movie.
There’s no release date just yet, but between the Playboy Mansion setting, Depp’s casting, and Nicholson’s very personal connection to the material, Playmates already has our attention.