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Aubrey Plaza is ready for a “different kind” of challenge by playing Heidi Fleiss.
The actress, 41, revealed that she’s “excited” to take on the role of the Hollywood madam in the forthcoming biopic, The Heidi Fleiss Story. The film, which Variety previously shared would be directed by Leah Rachel, stars Plaza as Fleiss — who ran an upscale prostitution ring in Los Angeles before being arrested on multiple charges and eventually convicted on federal charges of tax evasion.
“I’ve been on this track for a while,” Plaza told IndieWire at the New York City premiere of Honey Don’t on Wednesday, Aug. 12. “I got it in my head that I wanted to play her a couple of years ago and I’ve never played a real-life person before. It’s a different kind of scale, challenge, that I’m really excited about, and I just think she’s an incredible person, incredible character.”
“The story is insane,” Plaza added of Fleiss, who spent 20 months in prison for tax evasion in 1994. “She’s done something that probably nobody else has ever done, and she’s still going. I think she’s the ultimate badass icon and she deserves the royal treatment. We shall give it to her.”
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Plaza added that while she hasn’t yet spoken with Fleiss, she has it on her radar. “I hope to make a little trip to her place in the desert at some point,” she said. “Spiritually I feel her. I’ve heard she’s very excited about it. We’re in early stages.”
The film was announced earlier this month, when Variety shared that Plaza will also serve as producer through her company Evil Hag. It will mark Rachel’s directorial debut, too, as she co-writes alongside Rachel Sennott and Travis Jackson. It will also mark Plaza’s first major project since the death of husband Jeff Baena, who died in January at age 47.
The Heidi Fleiss Story arrives over two decades after 2004 TV movie, Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss, which featured Jamie-Lynn Sigler in the title role. According to Variety, the new project will begin filming in Los Angeles in the coming months.
“Their take on the tabloid sensation follows Fleiss before trial, scrambling around Los Angeles trying to blackmail and leverage various connections to get the case dropped, with the help of an aspiring young writer named Jaclyn,” Variety reported at the time.
Before her latest outing, Plaza stepped out in May at the red carpet for the Honey Don’t premiere at Cannes Film Festival, marking her first red-carpet appearance since her husband’s death.
The dark comedy, directed by Ethan Coen, follows a small-town investigator who seeks answers on a series of mysterious deaths linked to a church. It also stars Margaret Qualley and Charlie Day. The film arrives just months before Plaza and Coen will again join forces for the off-Broadway play, Let’s Love!, which opens in October.
“He actually came into my trailer when we wrapped Honey, Don’t! and he was like, ‘I wrote this play. I think I wrote it for you and didn’t realize it. Will you do it?’ And I was like, ‘I’ll literally do anything you tell me to do,’ ” Plaza told IndieWire. “So here I go.”