Michael Oakes Archives/Getty Images; Steve Granitz/Film Magic
Selena Gomez will play Linda Ronstadt in an upcoming biopic, Rolling Stone Confirms.
Fans began speculating online about a possible casting after Gomez posted an Instagram story of Ronstadt’s 2013 memoir Simple dreams (In another story, she also announced that she was taking a break from social media.) The biopic is currently in pre-production, with Ronstadt’s director, John Boylan, and James Keach co-starring. Additional details about the cast and release date have not yet been announced.
Ronstadt and Gomez are both of Mexican descent. In 2022, Ronstadt was released Her album I feel that I am in my houseWhich contained stories from her heritage and Sonoran recipes. 2020 movie Linda and the Mockingbirds — directed by Kitsch — chronicles her visit to Mexico with Jackson Browne the previous year, where they worked with students from Los Senzontelles Cultural Arts Academy.
Documentary Linda Ronstadt: Voice of My Voice It was later released in 2019. The film, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, traces her incredible multi-genre career spanning nearly five decades, including her dominance of the 1970s country rock scene, Pirates of Penzance Broadway moment, and more. “I was tired by the end (of watching it),” she said. Rolling Stone. “I thought: I can’t believe I did so many things!”
Ronstadt retired from singing after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2012. Her last performance was three years ago, at a San Antonio town hall (“They say your life flashes before your eyes when you’re dying, but it does when you’re quitting, too”), she told us. In 2021, she sold her catalog to Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Collection.
Recent biopics of Queen, Elton John, Motley Crue, and Elvis Presley have introduced their music to a whole new generation. It seems a safe bet that this phenomenon will happen to Ronstadt after this film hits theaters.