Nina Arianda, who last month won a Tony for her portrayal of Vanda in “Venus in Furs” (video below), has been cast as Janis Joplin in the long-gestating independent biopic.
Playing the electrifyingly raw rock and blues singer will mark the first time the American-Ukrainian actress, who turns 28 this September, has had a lead role in a movie. She previously appeared in “Win Win” and “Tower Heights,” and was the wife of Michael Sheen’s pseudo-intellectual in “Midnight in Paris.”
According to Mike Fleming, who reported the news on Deadline yesterday, “Joplin” will be set during the last six months of the singer’s turbulent life, with flashbacks to her early career. It will be directed by Sean Durkin, who is hot from the critical success of “Martha Marcy May Marlene.”
Over the years, a number of actresses and singers had eyed the role of Joplin, among them Lili Taylor, Amy Adams, Renee Zellweger, Melissa Etheridge, Pink, Courtney Love, Zooey Deschanel, and the late Brittany Murphy. The latter auditioned successfully for the version of the story known as “Piece of My Heart,” which was never made.
“Joplin” will be produced by Peter Newman (“Dogfight,” “Smoke,” “The Squid and the Whale”) who has worked on the project for 12 years and has acquired the rights of 21 of Joplin’s songs, which Arianda will sing herself. Of Arianda’s performance in “Venus in Furs,” Newman told Fleming: “I’ve never in my life seen an actress walk on a stage and convey the duality of vulnerability with overheated sexuality, which is what Janis was all about.”
Writes Fleming: “Newman’s trump card all these years was a contractual lock on the Joplin songs as well as the life rights and arrangements of her backing band Big Brother and the Holding Company. He has the rights to ‘Love, Janis,’ a collection of letters from the singer that was published by her sister Laura Joplin, and the David Dalton book ‘Piece of My Heart.’”
The Texan singer, who performed at Monterey in 1967 and Woodstock in 1970, died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27, 15 days before Jimi Hendrix died at the same age.
Nina Arianda stars with Hugh Dancy in David Ives's "Venus in Furs":
Bottom: Janis Joplin performs "Piece of My Heart":
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