Annette Bening transforms into a fading Gloria Grahame in 'Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool' trailer
Many were surprised when Annette Bening missed out on an Oscar nomination last year for her acclaimed star turn in 20th Century Women. Fortunately, the oft-nominated actress should be back in contention this year for the new drama Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, in which she plays a real-life Oscar winner, Golden Age of Hollywood leading lady Gloria Grahame. As you’ll see in the film’s new trailer, premiering exclusively on Yahoo Entertainment, those glory days are long past when we pick up with Grahame’s story. No longer living the high life in La La Land, she’s now treading second-rate boards in Liverpool, looking for that proverbial next act. (Watch the trailer above.)
And she finds it, after a fashion, in her romance with aspiring young actor Peter Turner (Jamie Bell), who wrote the memoir that the film is based on. Although their May-December relationship inspires raised eyebrows among their respective families and friends, Peter stays faithfully by Gloria’s side through career disappointments and declining health. “When you meet Peter, I felt like I understood Gloria,” Bening told the Independent earlier this year of meeting the real Turner. (Grahame died in 1981.) “He adored her in a way I just suspect nobody ever had.”
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool opens in theaters on Dec. 29.
Read more from Yahoo Entertainment: