Debbie Harry Taps Florence Pugh For Blondie Biopic: “I Just Think She’s A Great Actor And She Could Do Anything.”

The legendary punk frontwoman wants the Thunderbolts* star to play her in a mooted film from the director of Aftersun.

Debbie Harry thinks Florence Pugh should play her in a biopic. The iconic singer revealed her pick in a wide-ranging interview in the UK’s The Sunday Times, along with bandmate Chris Stein, to mark the reissue of Blondie‘s 1999 album, No Exit.

“If it were somebody like Florence Pugh, I would be in heaven,” she enthused. “I just think she’s a great actor and she could do anything.”

Now, on one level that’s just wishful thinking, but I wouldn’t mind seeing it manifest. Pugh is one of those preternatural talents that come along once or twice in a generation, so frankly any casting announcement involving her is invariably good news. And the film in question is real – or at least as real as a project in development can be – with Aftersun‘s Charlotte Wells tapped to direct. Presumably, it’ll draw on Harry’s autobiography, Face It, which was published in 2019.

While Harry has been a pretty regular screen presence over the years, appearing in the likes of David Cronenberg‘s Videodrome, James Mangold’s Cop Land, and John Waters’ Hairspray, she’s rarely been portrayed on screen. The only instance that leaps immediately to mind is the 2013 film CBGB, where she’s played by Malin Akerman, and the less said about that, the better. Kirsten Dunst was once in talks to play Harry back in the early 2000s, but that project never eventuated. Hopefully, the current iteration will eventually see the light of day.