Kal Penn Teases Role as Anna Nicole Smith’s Doctor in Movie About Model’s Life: It’s a ‘Drama’ but ‘Equal Parts Ridiculous’
variety.comMarc Malkin Senior Editor, Culture and Events Kal Penn admits he didn’t know much about Anna Nicole Smith’s physician, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, before he was approached to star as the doctor in the indie adaptation of his memoir, “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor.” “But then I read the doctor’s autobiography and found it interesting and compelling,” Penn told me Monday night at the South Asians at the Oscars party on the Paramount lot.
Variety’s Tatiana Siegel exclusively reported Feb. 23 that Penn is set to portray Sandeep in “Trust Me, I’m a Doctor,” which chronicles Smith’s final days before dying of an accidental overdose in 2007 at the age of 39.
Kapoor became entangled in Smith’s death when reports surfaced that he wrote her prescriptions to addictive drugs. Written and directed by Thane Economou (“The Wedding Party”), the movie is a “drama,” Penn said, but it will be “equal parts ridiculous” because of some of the “larger than life personalities” involved with Smith as well as the tabloid media’s wall-to-wall coverage of the one-time Playboy model.
Casting for Smith is still underway, but Penn, who is also executive producing the project with Dan Spilo, said he believes an actor will be announced “soon” because shooting begins in the spring.
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