Ryan Murphy has found his newest Monster star, and she’s the offspring of two Hollywood legends.
Ella Beatty, the daughter of Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, has been cast as the notorious accused ax murderer Lizzie Borden in season 4 of Murphy’s true-crime anthology series, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed. This will only be the 25-year-old actress’ third screen credit, following roles in 2024’s Feud: Capote vs. the Swans (another Murphy project) and the upcoming Mary Bronstein dramedy If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.
Ella Beatty reacted to her casting in an Instagram post Monday, writing, “Cannot believe I get to work with geniuses such as these.” She’ll be joined in Monster season 4 by Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps.
Monster concluded its second season, billed as Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menéndez Story, in September. In addition to launching the careers of titular stars Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, the season starred Chloë Sevigny as the Menéndez brothers’ mother, Kitty. Sevigny herself previously played Borden in the 2018 film Lizzie.
Borden’s story has captivated the public for more than a century. In 1892, Borden claimed that she had discovered her father and stepmother, Andrew Jackson Borden and Abby Durfee Gray, brutally murdered in the family’s home in Fall River, Mass. The weapon used in the murders, an ax, launched the case to national notoriety, and Borden was ultimately tried and acquitted. In the years since, her life has been depicted on the stage and screen and beyond.
The first season of Monster chronicled the exploits of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (played by Evan Peters), and season 3 will star Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein, the mass murderer whose heinous crimes inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Krieps is also set to appear in season 3.
Francois Duhamel
Rebecca Hall in ‘The Prestige’
Monster airs in parallel with two other sprawling Murphy projects: Feud, which dramatizes high-profile interpersonal conflicts, and the extended American Story franchise, which includes anthology series American Horror Story, American Horror Stories, American Crime Story, and the upcoming Love Story.
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Prior to Ella Beatty’s screen debut, the Juilliard graduate shared the stage with stars like Hugh Jackman, Sarah Paulson, Billy Crudup, and Lily Rabe. Last year she took over the role of River Rayner from Elle Fanning in the Broadway play Appropriate, which won Paulson (a frequent Murphy muse) a Tony Award. Beatty previously appeared with Crudup and Rabe in a production of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Lincoln Center Theater and with Jackman in an Off Broadway production of Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.
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