Zendaya Might Play Ronnie Spector In An Upcoming Biopic
A long, long time ago it was rumored that Zendaya would play Aaliyah in a Lifetime biopic. That of course never happened, but that clearly didn’t kill Zendaya’s dreams of slipping into some throwback wardrobe choices to do her best vocal impression of a Black music industry icon. And it would appear fate stepped in to present Zendaya with a really good biopic project (sorry Lifetime). Because Deadline is saying that Zendaya is in talks to play Ronnie Spector in a movie about Ronnie’s biopic-worthy life.
The Independent Spirit Awards’ favorite film company, A24, is working on a biopic about Ronnie, based on her 1990 memoir Be My Baby. Ronnie’s life rights have reportedly just been acquired. Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury is reportedly going to write the screenplay. And that’s kind of all we’ve really got on this biopic at the moment. Except for the part about who will play Ronnie, which Zendaya is in talks for.
Zendaya is coming off a record-breaking Best Actress Emmy win and, Ronnie herself, who will serve as an executive producer on the project, has personally chosen Zendaya as the person she would most like to see on the big screen, belting out “Frosty The Snowman” in a 1960s recording studio (forgive me for that being my favorite Ronettes song).
I might not be too far off on the assumption that we might get a Christmas album recording scene, since Ronnie’s memoirs were all about her shitty marriage to her shitty husband Phil Spector. Ronnie, then Veronica Bennett, formed The Ronettes with her sister Estelle, and their cousin Nedra Talley, in New York City. They were eventually signed by Phil Spector and became a huge girl group. In 1968 Ronnie married Phil, and it was awful from the start. Phil was allegedly physically and mentally abusive, and pulled fucked-up shit like adopting kids as Christmas presents and keeping a gold casket with a glass top in their basement and telling Ronnie he was going to kill her and put her in it, so he could always keep an eye on her.
Ronnie was married to him until 1972 when she got out of there. A big part of Ronnie’s story is that she escaped barefoot out of their mansion, which was allegedly surrounded by barbed wire and guard dogs to prevent Ronnie from leaving. I suppose we’ll know for sure how serious Zendaya is about this role if anyone reports that they spotted Zendaya coming out of the A24 offices smelling like trash. I assume they’d make her screen test with a big bag of garbage, as it’s the closest stand-in for the character of Phil.
Pics: Wenn.com