This article makes mention of suicide.
The Conjuring star Vera Farmiga changed everything for her next role.
The actor has transformed into a real-life UFO cult leader in her upcoming crime thriller’s brand new first-look image. Farmiga is best known for her role as Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring movies, starring opposite Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren. The actor is also known for a number of award-winning roles, from portraying Norma Bates in A&E’s Bates Motel to appearing in The Sopranos’ prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark. Now, she’ll be taking on another historical role that’s quite different from the real-world paranormal investigator she plays in The Conjuring franchise.
Now, People has released a first-look image of Farmiga as the real-world UFO cult leader Bonnie Nettles in the upcoming crime movie The Leader. The movie follows the exploits of Nettles and Marshall Applewhite (Tim Blake Nelson), the leaders of the Heaven’s Gate cult, whose intertwined beliefs about both aliens and Heaven led to the biggest mass suicide event to happen in the United States. In the image, Farmiga can be seen with the same hairstyle as Nettles, looking ahead while someone stands behind her.
Check out the image below:
The movie, written and directed by Michael Gallagher, will follow the history of the Heaven’s Gate cult, with Nettles and Applewhite at the center of its story. In real life, the pair went by Do (Applewhite) and Ti (Nettles), co-founding the UFO cult. The pair’s teachings would continue to influence the group even after 1985, when Nettles died of melanoma, 12 years before the cult’s ritual mass suicide took place in 1997. The event was sparked by a belief that members would become immortal extraterrestrials while the Hale-Bopp comet passed over Earth, resulting in 39 deaths.
In addition to Farmiga and Nelson, the historical cult movie will also star Jim Parsons, Grace Caroline Currey, Simon Rex, Kaitlyn Kemp, J.B. Yowell, Don McManus, Kelly Lynn Reiter, William Mapother, Matthew Glave, Jana Gallagher, Geoffrey Arend, Danielle Vasinova, Paten Hughes, Molly Robbins, Jill Winternitz, Ryan M. Darling, Blake Robbins, Randolph Parks, and Grace McDonald. The movie premiered at Tribeca Film Festival on June 5, 2026, with most reviews praising the movie for its unsettling look at the foundation of Heaven’s Gate and the events that followed.
Farmiga’s new movie also comes from a place of passion for her, as she also revealed to People how she became interested in learning about the cult through HBO’s 2020 miniseries Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults. This led her to seek out roles that were tied to the cult, eventually getting her into contact with Gallagher a few years later. Her portrayal as Nettles has earned significant praise as of writing, indicating she was the perfect choice to portray the co-founder.
With a new image release and the movie already earning praise from its film festival premiere, it sounds like The Leader will be an impactful film once it eventually arrives for the public to view. Farmiga‘s pre-ordained passion in learning about the cult will seemingly come out in her performance, something that will elevate the historical crime thriller as it tells a cult story that’s all too real.
- Birthdate
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August 6, 1973
- Birthplace
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Clifton, New Jersey, United States
- Birthname
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Vera Ann Farmiga
- Height
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5 feet 7 inches
- Professions
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Actress, Producer, Director