Since stepping down from royal duties and returning to the United States, Meghan Markle has pursued a variety of different projects, including her Netflix series, podcasts, and a lifestyle brand. Her latest project might be more surprising, as she is reportedly returning to what she was doing before she met her husband, Prince Harry. Before her 2018 wedding, Meghan starred in Suits and appeared in several films. Now, she’s reportedly expected to appear in another one: Amazon MGM Studios’ film Close Personal Friends.
It’s been years since Meghan worked as an actress.
Eight years, to be more precise. Multiple sources, including Deadline, Variety, and The Sun have reported that Meghan has a role in the film, which Brie Larson, Lily Collins, Jack Quaid, and Henry Golding are starring in. At this point, the details remain unclear, but The Sun reports that she’s portraying herself in the project. Variety described Meghan’s role in the film as “a small cameo role.”
According to a source that spoke to The Sun, this is Meghan’s way of “gently putting her toe back in the water and seeing how she enjoys being back on set.” The source also claimed that others working on the project have been “sworn to secrecy about her involvement.”
It allegedly felt like the right career move to her.
Though the role doesn’t sound major, it still seems to signal a shift from the work she’s been focusing on. Recently, she promoted the launch of As Ever‘s holiday collection, for example. While sources claimed that Prince Harry didn’t love Meghan’s candle that was inspired by their wedding, he’s said to be supportive of her acting project. “Prince Harry is, of course, really supportive and quite simply wants Meghan to do whatever brings her joy,” a source told The Sun.
Some critics found it hard to believe.
Given that not much information is available at this time, some people on social media have an “I’ll believe it when I see it” sort of mindset about the whole thing. Others took issue with the way the news was described as Meghan’s return to acting. One critic on Reddit claimed that while Meghan has not formally acted in eight years, she has been “performing” for a long time (Meghan is often criticized for coming across as “performative,” fake, and unrelatable). “What else has she been doing these eight years if not performing?” the critic questioned. “There’s the Oprah tears, the cursty mockery…she’s been workshopping this role for nearly a decade now.”
At the same time, others argued that Meghan would not be acting at all since she’s allegedly portraying herself in the film. “PLAYING HERSELF is all I need to see,” someone else wrote. “She’s not acting. It’s gonna be those, ‘wow, it’s MeghanTheDuchessOfSussex’ drive-bys.”
Either way, if we’ve learned anything from With Love, Meghan, it’s that people will surely have opinions about everything that Meghan appears in.
