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Which controversial figure will Aubrey Plaza embody in a biopic?
After making a noticeable appearance at the latest Cannes Film Festival alongside Margaret Qualley, Aubrey Plaza is set to join a project that could make a lot of noise. The Emmy-nominated actress for her performance in the satire The White Lotus is expected to portray Hollywood’s most infamous madam Heidi Fleiss in a biopic.
By Jordan Bako.
Published on 12 August 2025. Updated on 14 August 2025.
Aubrey Plaza, star of a biopic co-written by Rachel Sennott
Whether she is playing a couple going off rails in The White Lotus, an ambitious, power-hungry journalist in the film Megalopolis, or the embodiment of Death itself in the Marvel series Agatha All Along, Aubrey Plaza shines in roles that flirt with dark humour. Her signature pout and deadpan expression allow her to excel in roles that are not only serious, but always tinged with a touch of irony.
After the passing of her husband, filmmaker Jeff Baena, last January, the 41-year-old actress is gradually reappearing in new projects. She stepped back into the spotlight at the Cannes Film Festival with Honey Don’t, a lesbian western directed by Ethan Coen, in which she stars opposite Margaret Qualley. But Aubrey Plaza will soon take on the lead role a biopic about madam Heidi Fleiss. A project co-written by screenwriter Travis Jackson and the brilliant actress Rachel Sennott (Bottoms, I Used to Be Funny).
Heidi Fleiss, Hollywood’s most infamous madam
In addition to being as one of the film’s producers, the actress will slip into the skin of the woman once nicknamed the “Hollywood Madam.” In the late 1980s, Heidi Fleiss was at the head of a brothel in Los Angeles. Catering to an elite clientele, the establishment had allegedly welcomed politicians, as well as music and film stars. The full list of her clients has never been revealed… According to the Paris Match archives, the avarage rate at the time could reach $6,000 a night.
Arrested in 1993 for tax evasion and not for pimping, the woman who made a brief appearance in Gregg Araki’s 1995 film The Doom Generation had already seen her life portrayed on screen in a 2004 TV movie titled Call Me: The Rise and Fall of Heidi Fleiss. After serving 21 months in prison, Heidi Fleiss has since retired from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Today, she lives in a house filled with parakeets in Nevada…
Aubrey Plaza in the film Megalopolis (2024) by Francis Ford Coppola. © 2024 Caesar Film LLC.
Sex, scandals and schemes in a biopic co-written by Rachel Sennott
As the debut feature by director Leah Rachel, creator of the series Chambers, the biopic starring Aubrey Plaza is expected to take place in the period of time leading up to Heidi Fleiss’s trial. According to Variety, the star of Honey Don’t will appear “scrambling around Los Angeles trying to blackmail and leverage various connections to get the case dropped, with the help of an aspiring young writer named Jaclyn.”
In her own words, the former madam told the American tabloid TMZ that she well aware that a biopic about her life is currently in the works. However, she warned the media that she will neither watch it nor take part in writing it. While she admits to liking Aubrey Plaza in The White Lotus, she insists that “the past is dead and buried.”
In the wake of Anora’s (2024) recent triumph, films about the world of sex work may well multiply in the coming years. If pimp roles have traditionally been reserved for men on the big screen, Aubrey Plaza may just be about to turn the tide with this new biopic.
The biopic about Heidi Fleiss does not have a release date yet.
