Aubrey Plaza‘s fans were surprised on Wednesday to learn that the White Lotus actress had been tapped to portray the infamous Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss in an upcoming biopic.
And now Fleiss, 59, is speaking out about the 41-year-old actress‘ plans to play her in The Heidi Fleiss Story.
The former madam told the Daily Mail she was ’pleasantly shocked’ that the Parks And Recreation actress will be playing her in the biopic.Â
‘It sounds fantastic,’ Fleiss said on Wednesday. ‘I‘ve never met her and never even heard about it, but wow!’
But she also shared a note of caution for Plaza in the wake of her legal and reputational setbacks.
’She’s got her work cut out for her,’ Fleiss said. ’You know, I hate to have to live with me, and now she has to play me.’
Heidi Fleiss, 59, spoke exclusively with the Daily Mail on Wednesday about news that Aubrey Plaza will play her in an upcoming biopic. She offered a warning for the 41-year-old actress; Fleiss is pictured in 2018 in Carson City, Nevada
The former madam said she was ’pleasantly shocked’ that the Parks And Recreation actress will be playing her in the biopic. ‘It sounds fantastic. I‘ve never met her and never even heard about it, but wow!’
However, Fleiss added: ‘She’s going to be great.’
Fleiss has been open about her early career, in which she briefly worked as a prostitute.Â
After she was mentored by another madam running a prostitution ring in Beverly Hills, Fleiss went solo in 1990 and launched her own prostitution ring catering to wealthy clients in Hollywood.Â
But the organization was short-lived, as Fleiss was arrested in 1993 on charges of pandering, tax evasion, and money laundering after prosecutors accused her of laundering $1.5 million through a series of shell companies with falsified records.
She was eventually convicted of federal tax evasion charges in 1996.
She was sentenced to seven years in prison, but only served 20 months of her sentence at a federal correctional institution before she was released to a halfway house, where she began the rest of her sentence, which included a requirement to complete 370 hours of community service.
When asked what advice she would give to Plaza, Fleiss said: ‘You know what? I’m confused by the things that I do, so I don’t know how to give anyone advice.’
Plaza will be stepping into the role after acclaimed turns in season two of HBO’s The White Lotus, as well as the crime drama Emily The Criminal and the coming-of-age dramedy My Old Ass.Â
Fleiss ran a prostitution ring in Hollywood in the early 1990s that catered to wealthy clients, but she was arrested in 1993 and convicted in 1996 of federal tax evasion charges; pictured in court in 1993
She shared a note of caution for Plaza. ’She’s got her work cut out for her,’ Fleiss said. ’You know, I hate to have to live with me, and now she has to play me’; pictured on Celebrity Big Brother UK in 2010
Plaza, who will also produce the upcoming biopic, will be stepping into the role after acclaimed turns in season two of HBO’s The White Lotus, as well as the crime drama Emily The Criminal and the coming-of-age dramedy My Old Ass; seen in October in NYC
Plaza will next be seen in the crime comedy Honey Don’t!, which is written and directed by Ethan Coen and co-written with his wife Tricia Cooke.
The actress spent time out of the spotlight earlier this year after her husband, the filmmaker Jeff Baena, died by suicide.Â
She made her first public appearance after the tragedy by briefly appearing on the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special in February, during which she donned a tie-dye shirt as a tribute to her late husband, as it was similar to the tie-dye shirts they wore at their wedding in 2021.Â
Fleiss also gave Daily Mail an update on several projects she’s working on, including a new site and app for content creators that she hopes will rival OnlyFans.
It’s called The List by Heidi Fleiss, and the former madam is already in talks with web developers to create it.
‘OnlyFans take 20 percent of what these creators make, and very few are making money because they take so much,’ Fleiss said. ‘Most of them aren’t making $3 million a month — they make $2,000. Creators should have more control of the money they make from their content. The List will be more favorable for the creators.’Â
Fleiss, who lives in Pahrump, Nevada, says her priority remains on taking care of her precious birds and continuing her rescue efforts.Â
She currently has between 30 to 40 Macaws and smaller parrots, many of which had been neglected by prior owners or breeders, and she hopes her efforts to care for them can counteract negative forces in society.
The actress spent time out of the spotlight earlier this year after her husband, the filmmaker Jeff Baena, died by suicide; pictured together in 2017 in Park City, Utah
Fleiss now runs a small airport in Pahrump, Nevada, that only caters to small aircrafts, and she is filming a documentary with director Andrew Renzi, who produced HBO’s reality series Paul American about Jake and Logan Paul; seen in 2018 in Carson City, Nevada
‘Humanity has had one purpose, and that is to destroy everything as quickly as possible. That’s our only purpose,’ Fleiss claimed. ‘That’s how I truly see humanity, and I’ve always been misanthropic. But with these birds, it’s so much more.’
Since her release, Fleiss has been open about her past work running a prostitution ring, though she has largely stayed mum about the identities of her high-powered former clients, even as some of their identities were hinted at during her salacious trial.
In 2010 she made a foray into mainstream television when she appeared on the UK’s Celebrity Big Brother.Â
In recent years, Fleiss has been the owner and manager of a private airport in Pahrump that caters only to small aircrafts.
But the former Hollywood madam is also stepping back into the entertainment industry by filming a documentary directed by Andrew Renzi, who was a producer on the HBO reality series Paul American, which delves into the exploits of brothers Jake and Logan Paul.