Anna Van Patten Joins Searchlight’s ‘Playmates’

EXCLUSIVE: Anna Van Patten (Euphoria) has joined the cast of Playmates, the Searchlight film inspired by filmmaker Lorraine Nicholson’s experiences growing up at the Playboy Mansion, sources tell Deadline. We hear she’ll play a character named Jade; further details are under wraps. Reps for the studio declined to comment. Nicholson’s feature directorial debut Playmates adapts her own original script — an L.A.-set coming-of-age story following 13-year-old know-it-all Elle (played by Indiana Elle), who considers the Playboy Mansion her second home. During her time at the Mansion, Elle meets Anna (Lily-Rose Depp), one of seven hopefuls vying to be Playmate of the Month. The two form an unlikely friendship and try to help each other get what the other wants most, a magazine cover and a boy. Bill Pullman is playing Hugh Hefner, as previously announced, with Jessica Biel as a former Playboy Playmate who was one of his wives. Her character is fictionalized, we’re told — not modeled off any of Hefner’s three real-life wives, specifically. Watch on Deadline Producers on Playmates include Alex Orlovsky and Duncan Montgomery of High Frequency Entertainment, as well as Depp. VP Production Richard Ruiz and CE Cornelia Burleigh are overseeing the project for the studio, reporting to Heads of Production and Development DanTram Nguyen and Katie Goodson-Thomas. Previously, Van Patten has been seen on the series Euphoria, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox and Gossip Girl, as well as in Master, the Sundance horror thriller from Miriama Diallo, which released on Prime Video. She is repped by CAA and Range Media Partners.