Pauly Shore Shares Update on His Quest to Play Richard Simmons in a Movie

For quite a while now, social media users have floated the idea of ’90s comedy icon Pauly Shore playing the role of Richard Simmons, the ’80s workout guru, in a biopic. At some point recently, it finally reached Shore, who took to Facebook to say he was going to pitch it to Simmons. Now, Shore says that Simmons declined the idea, but he has one Hail Mary play left: he wants to team with Rocketman‘s Dexter Fletcher to make a short proof-of-concept video, which he could send to Simmons for a final thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

Shore shared all these details in a second Facebook post, which also feature a poster for the fake movie, put together by fans in Photoshop, and a pair of side-by-side comparisons of pictures of Shore and Simmons. He did indicate, though, that he wants to respect Simmons’s wishes, and will let the issue drop if nothing comes of the Fletcher pitch.

“I reached out to Richard…and his representatives said that Richard loves me and my mom (he has known us both for decades), but Richard is politely passing,” Shore wrote. “He said Richard, at this time, wants to remain private, which we all need to respect. Richard, we all miss you, love you very much and want nothing but the best for you. You are in all of our hearts. You can always reach out to me if you change your mind. I’m just a phone call away. And since today is Yom Kippur, I’d love to stop by, bring you some yummy warm matzo ball soup and sit at the head of your bed and gaze into your eyes.”

Simmons, omnipresent on TV for years as the host of Sweatin’ to the Oldies and other fitness programs, vanished suddenly in 2014, and has hardly ever been seen since. After a podcast called Missing Richard Simmons called public attention to his “disappearance,” police did a wellness check and revealed that Simmons was not missing or endangered, but rather living a reclusive life.

In 2017, after Simmons had been “missing” from the public sphere for over 1,000 days, his decision to step away from the limelight went viral. He had a surgery, and after leaving his home, returned to police and reporters waiting to see him and make sure he was okay. He posted a thanks to the medical staff who oversaw his surgery, as well as the law enforcement officials who checked in on him upon his return, on Facebook.