Pauly Shore’s hope of portraying the late fitness guru Richard Simmons in a biopic continues to face strong opposition, as Simmons’ staff and family are speaking out.
Speaking to TMZ on Tuesday, Shore confirmed that his long-gestating film about Simmons ― who died last month at age 76 ― was still in the works. He also shrugged off Simmons’ repeated denouncements of the project on social media.
“I know he wanted me to do it,” the actor and comedian said. “I don’t even know if that was him tweeting the whole time, to be quite honest. I don’t know who that was.”
Shore’s comments drew a firm retort from Simmons’ staff on social media.
“Pauly Shore has recently made comments to TMZ Paparazzi concerning his attempts to proceed with an unauthorised movie about Richard,” Simmons’ staff wrote in a Wednesday statement. “You’ve seen here on Richard’s account what he had to say about the biopic.”
The statement also included a quote attributed to Simmons’ brother, Lenny Simmons, who said, “Dicky absolutely wrote his own posts. He worked on them a week in advance, going over and over them to get the right message.”
“What he has NOT done was to text, email or call Pauly with anything; not even to wish him ‘Good Luck’ as Pauly has stated many times,” he added.
Shore first announced his plan to portray Simmons in a biopic in January. That month, he appeared as Simmons in “The Court Jester,” an unrelated short film that was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Shore said he viewed the movie as his opportunity for the type of a career comeback that his “Encino Man” co-stars, Brendan Fraser and Ke Huy Quan, have recently experienced.
“[Simmons is] very handsome. Also, his style and my style is very over the top and spontaneous, so that’s inherent in me already,” he explained. “So you have all these things that kind of represent him already within me.”
The news prompted a rare social media post from Simmons himself, who said he was not involved with the project.
“I have never given my permission for this movie,” he wrote on Facebook. “So don’t believe everything you read.”
Simmons continued to distance himself from the film, and in April, announced that he was “in talks with major studios” for a separate movie about his life in which Shore would not appear.
Shore responded with a lengthy note on social media in which he claimed he’d been “up all night crying” in response to Simmons’ announcement.
“Richard, how do you not approve of this movie? I mean, really, who’s better to play you in a movie than ME?” he wrote on Instagram. “Leonardo DiCaprio’s not gonna play you. Brad Pitt’s not gonna play you. I’m perfect. Everyone already thinks I’m you. We’re the same. Beautiful, inside and out.”