Do we really need anymore celeb biopics? Objectively, propbably not. But in this case, the answer is a firm yes. Imagine this: a Rihanna biopic starring none other than Hollywood’s latest It girl, Taylor Russell.
Now, before you get too excited, it’s worth pointing out: as far as we know, no such film is in the works or even being considered. However, Rihanna herself just pitched the idea and, honestly, we’re already kind of obsessed with it.
While speaking to E! News, the singer was asked who she’d like to see play her in a biopic.
“Who’s that one singer, that one actress, that can take on bad gal Ri Ri?” asked the presenter.
“Taylor Russell,” said Rihanna without hesitation. “You know why? ‘Cause she got, like, a nice forehead, she’s, like, fly and I feel like I wanna be her, so I want her to pretend to be me. I want people to see me in that light.”
Rihanna, we see the vision and we approve.
Russell found fame in Netflix’s Lost in Space before landing the starring role in Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal coming-of-age tale, Bones and All in 2022. This year, she made her stage debut in The Effect at London’s National Theatre, before beginning production for Na Hong-jin’s Hope alongside the likes of Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender. Oh, and she just got out of a low-profile relationship with pop sensation, Harry Styles. In other words, Russell is on the precipice of Hollywood superstardom — and a Rihanna biopic would most certainly tip her over the edge.
But is that level of fame something that Russell actually wants? Perhaps not. “I love acting and being out there and the feeling of being on a set… It gives me so much,” she said to Byrdie in 2022. “At the same time, there’s this feeling I have that if people are looking at me… it almost feels like a sort of death to some degree. I don’t know if I can handle it; it’s almost like a claustrophobia.”
Rihanna may want to be Russell — honestly, who can blame her? — but will Russell want to be Ri Ri? We’ll have to wait and see.