Richard Simmons Would Like to Exclude Himself From Pauly Shore's Biopic Of His Life

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | January 18, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Celebrity | January 18, 2024 |

Just hours after it was announced that Pauly Shore would play Richard Simmons in an upcoming biopic, the fitness icon took to Facebook to let everyone know that he was not on board with the project. Simmons, who has lived a very private life over the past few years, wrote:

‘Hi Everybody! You may have heard they may be doing a movie about me with Pauly Shore. I have never given my permission for this movie. So don’t believe everything you read. I no longer have a manager, and I no longer have a publicist. I just try to live a quiet life and be peaceful. Thank you for all your love and support. Richard.’

Shore has been gung-ho about this project for a while now. Before the feature was greenlit, he got a short film off the ground called The Court Jester, showing off his not-unreasonable resemblance to Simmons. That short will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival tomorrow before landing on YouTube. It’s unrelated to the biopic, according to Variety.

The Wolper Organization, which is making the biopic, told Variety:

‘While we would love to have [Simmons] involved, we respect his desire to privacy and plan to produce a movie that honors him, celebrates him and tells a dramatic story. We know he is deeply private and we would never want to invade that, however he is an amazing person that changed millions of peoples’ lives, and the effect he has had on the world needs to be recognized.’

Simmons is, indeed, an icon. His flamboyant and earnest approach to household exercise and ‘Sweatin’ to the Oldies’ aerobics made him a star, as well as the butt of many jokes. In 2014, he stepped away from the public eye, which led to a lot of weird and gross speculation about his private life, including unfounded claims that he had transitioned genders. An entire podcast was dedicated to looking for him. Simmons reached out to NBC’s Today in 2016 to let everyone know he was fine and just wanted a quieter life.

Pauly Shore, for his part, is a man I only know from jokes on The Simpsons and Futurama. But hey, two actors in Encino Man are now Oscar winners, so why not him? He’s clearly hungry for a career change. Does he have the chops to do the role and not have it be a joke? That remains to be seen. The lack of Simmons’ involvement wouldn’t usually be a bad sign for me when it comes to biopics — honestly, more biopics should be made without having to adhere to the stifling demands of a brand or estate — but when someone wants privacy, it does feel, at the very least, a bit tasteless to go ahead on a project like this.