While Meghan Markle certainly hasn’t been absent from the public eye for a long time, it has been close to a decade since she was getting attention for her acting. But now it looks like that performing hiatus is coming to an end after eight years, as word’s come in that Meghan, Duchess of Sussex has scored her first acting role since she made her last appearance as Rachel Zane in Suits Season 7. This time around, she’s appearing in a movie that’s going to co-star Brie Larson.
As reported by Variety, Markle is set to have a cameo role in the comedy Close Personal Friends, which Larson will star in with Lily Collins, Jack Quaid, Brie Larson and Henry Golding. The movie is currently filming in Los Angeles, and the story follows a “regular” couple that becomes friends with a celebrity couple while they’re on a trip to Santa Barbara, though this leads to lines getting crossed and things getting awkward. Melissa Villaseñor, Natasia Demetriou, Anna Konkle, Patti Harrison, Jack Shalloo and Dustin Demri-Burns will also appear in Close Personal Friends.
It’s unclear which character Brie Larson will play in this upcoming comedy, as well as exactly what this cameo for Meghan Markle will entail. If I had to guess, she’ll play a fictional version of herself who knows the celebrity couple, and some kind of hijinks will ensue. Perhaps it’ll be something like when Keanu Reeves appeared as himself in the Netflix subscription-exclusive movie Always Be My Maybe, where Markle’s personality sharply contrasts with how she is in real life.
Behind the scenes, Jason Orley is directing Close Personal Friends, and he crafted the story with Isaac Aptaker, who’s writing the screenplay. Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger are producing the comedy, and they previously worked with Orley on I Want You Back, which can be streamed with an Amazon Prime Video subscription. Close Personal Friends hails from Amazon-MGM, but it’s unclear if it will get a theatrical release or be streaming-only.
In addition to her seven-season stint on Suits, Meghan Markle’s other notable acting credits include movies like Remember Me and Horrible Bosses, and guest spots on TV shows like Fringe and Castle. Although she left acting behind upon marrying Prince Harry in 2018, Markle has continued to be active in the media since then. This ranges from the couple’s production company Archwell Productions partnering up with Netflix for various documentary series, to her narrating the 2020 Disneynature documentary film Elephant.
Stay tuned for more details on Meghan Markle’s acting return in Close Personal Friends, including when it will be released. Going back to Brie Larson, she’s most recently appeared in the Apple TV+ miniseries Lessons in Chemistry and an episode of Hulu’s The Bear, but there’s no word on if we’ll see her reprise Carol Danvers, a.k.a. Captain Marvel, in either of the next two Avengers movies.
