Sharon Stone is ready to take on her first biopic: Portraying late pal Phyllis Diller. Stone told Insider while promoting her latest film “Nobody 2” that she is next trying to get a Diller biopic greenlit. Stone and comedian Diller were “very close friends” for years until her death in 2012.
“I do want to play Phyllis Diller very, very badly,” Stone said. “She and I were very close friends. Phyllis made little paintings for all my kids. She cooked me dinner a lot of times, that woman could cook. I told her I wanted to play her and she sat down and taught me her laugh. She made me practice her laugh!”
When asked if she is actively looking to get the film made, Stone said, “I’m trying. You know, she didn’t hit it big until she was 49. She lived in a trailer park with five kids and her schizophrenic husband and practiced her act on women at the laundromat. It’s unbelievable.”
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Stone continued that she is in a rare position with the project given how personal it would be. “I think there are great actors who could play Bob Hope, Red Buttons, Johnny Carson. Sam Rockwell could play Johnny in his sleep,” Stone added, saying of Diller, “We were tight. Yes, I’m desperate to play her.”
And Diller isn’t the only beloved star who might be getting a buzzy biopic soon: Lindsay Lohan has been vying to portray Ann-Margret for years. Lohan previously told Bustle that she was shepherding the Ann-Margret biopic to the big screen and just needed the “right writer” for the screenplay. “I really want to play Ann-Margret. She’s a triple threat, and she’s an amazing woman on top of that,” Lohan said. “So I just really want to do her justice and help tell a great story for her.”
Ann-Margret herself recently told IndieWire that she approves of Lohan portraying her. “I know that she wants to do that,” Ann-Margret said. “It just depends on what the dialogue is like. What can I say? I adore her. I think she’s full of talent, and I just would like to see what they can come up with.”
Jamie Lee Curtis also endorsed her “Freakier Friday” co-star Lohan bringing the Ann-Margret biopic to the screen. “I’m going to out you now to the world — I want her to do the Ann-Margret story,” Curtis said during “Good Morning America.” “So, every day on Instagram… I find videos of her back in the day, and I send [Lohan] every day videos [of Ann-Margret].”
