Shailene Woodley. Taylor Hill/WireImage
Shailene Woodley is ready to rock and roll as Janis Joplin in an upcoming biopic about the legendary singer’s life.
When asked by Jimmy Fallon if she will lend her own singing voice to the project during the Monday, December 2, episode of The Tonight Show, Woodley, 33, stated, “I’m gonna sing.”
While the film — which will follow Joplin’s final days before her 1970 death at age 27 — was announced in September, Woodley revealed that she’s been working on the project for seven years.
“I’m really excited. … She’s just such a groovy chick, man,” she said of Joplin. “She really brought the light to this planet, you know, in a really singular way. And it’s been so much fun to dive into her story, but also work alongside Linda Perry who’s our music producer on the set. [She’s] a legend. She’s incredible.”
From Jeremy Allen White’s upcoming Bruce Springsteen film, to Timothée Chalamet showing off his Bob Dylan-like vocals in A Complete Unknown, music biopics seem to be everywhere. Yet, these flicks aren’t a new phenomenon. Films centered around the lives of music icons have been captivating audiences for decades, from 1980’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, about the […]
According to Woodley, Perry, 59, “pushed” her and helped her “find my own voice” through some unconventional methods. “She put me in a lot of uncomfortable situations where she’s like, ‘Alright, show up here on this date.’ [It’s] a massive, empty warehouse with a full band, and she’s like, ‘Have fun! Sing some songs,’” Woodley quipped. “I was like, ‘I don’t know how to sing anything. Like, Christmas carols? What do I sing?’”
Filming for the untitled project will take place in California after the movie received $2.5 million in funding from the California Film Commission, per Variety. As a result, Woodley and the film’s crew will be able to shoot at actual locations that proved to be pivotal in Joplin’s life, including Barney’s Beanery, where the singer partied the night of her death.
Janis Joplin. RB/Redferns
“We got the California tax credit, which is such an amazing gift for this film because we actually get to film in California, which rarely happens these days,” Woodley told Fallon, 50, on Monday. “And for Janis, it’s so important.”
Without spilling too many details about the movie, Woodley teased that fans can expect to see Joplin’s boho style in all its glory on the big screen. “You have the outfits?” Fallon asked, to which the actress replied, “Yeah, we have the outfits.”
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Born in Texas, Joplin rose to fame as a member of Big Brother and the Holding Company before going solo in the late ‘60s. After struggling with addiction, Joplin died of a heroin overdose in 1970. Her second and final solo album, Pearl, was released three months after her death and she was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.
In September, Perry told Entertainment Weekly that she’s been “waiting decades” to bring Joplin’s story to life on film. “There are no words to convey how honored I am to be included in what I believe to be a raw and honest look into Janis Joplin’s last days,” she shared.
The music producer went on to praise Woodley’s involvement, telling the outlet: “Shailene Woodley’s emotional commitment and dedication to Janis is inspiring. I believe her! Shailene lives for the art and I can’t think of a better person to portray such a powerful, emotional, and complex artist.”
