For years, fans on the internet have suggested ’90s comedy star Pauly Shore should play the role of ’80s fitness icon Richard Simmons in a movie. The star has heard these calls, and is actually interested in trying to make it happen, according to a new social media post. With a message on Facebook, Shore suggested to fans who hope to see him play Simmons in a biopic that they should reach out to streamers and studios to make their voice heard. He also promises that he has reached out to Simmons, and that the pair are playing phone tag.
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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.
“I’ve noticed all the reactions to me playing Richard Simmons in a new biopic. So I reached out to him,” Shore posted to Facebook. “I heard he’s living deep in Big Bear. We’ve been playing phone tag (yes, he still has a phone). I’m trying to make it happen for you guys. Be optimistic. In the meantime, hit up Hulu, Amazon, Disney, HBO and all the big producers. I definitely can morph into this guy. I’ll see you at the Academy Awards 2025.”
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.
“I was just happy to get another shot of doing something which was not playing a version of myself, which I’d been doing for a while,” Shore told ComicBook.com when he returned to starring roles with Guest House. “I mean, it’s where I feel I belong. I love acting. I love working with a group of people and developing scripts, and I love the process. So it’s kind of like, in the ’90s I was in a circus — because that’s really what it is; when you go from movie to movie, or big project, It’s like a circus. There’s the caterer, there’s the hair and makeup person, there’s the wardrobe. You know what I mean? And then I left the circus, or the circus left me, and then now I’m back at the circus. So as I was on the set, back in that space, it felt like that was my home.”
