Zendaya shares a moving tribute to Ronnie Spector, ahead of playing the late singer in upcoming biopic Be My Baby

Zendaya has paid tribute to Ronnie Spector, who last week passed away from cancer at the age of 78, on Instagram. 

The 25-year-old actress has a unique connection to the late Ronettes frontwoman, who – before her death – selected her to play the leading role in Be My Baby, an upcoming biopic chronicling Ronnie’s life.

Sharing to her 123 million (!) Instagram followers, Zendaya posted an iconic black and white image of Ronnie taken in 1977 – which features her sitting in a director’s seat bearing her name – together with a second image, a Polaroid of the two women together taken (according to a marker pen annotation) in 2018. 

The post was captioned with a moving essay celebrating the impact that the pair’s relationship had on the Euphoria actor, deeming it “one of the greatest honors [sic] of my life”.

The full caption celebrates Ronnie’s trademark red-lipped, big-haired aesthetic, together with her vivacious personality.

“This news just breaks my heart. To speak about her as if she’s not with us feels strange as she is so incredibly full of life. There’s not a time I saw her without her iconic red lips and full teased hair, a true rockstar through and through”.

It continues: “Ronnie, being able to know you has been one of the greatest honors of my life. Thank you for sharing your life with me, I could listen to your stories for hours and hours. Thank you for your unmeasured talent, your unwavering love for performing, your strength, resilience and your grace. There is absolutely nothing that could dim the light you cast. I admire you so much and am so grateful for the bond we share.”

The fandom was clearly mutual during Ronnie’s lifetime: back in September 2020, Deadline reported that Ronnie “chose Zendaya as the actress she wished to portray her in her early years” – in much the same way as Aretha Franklin personally backed Jennifer Hudson to play her in 2021 film, Respect. 

Zendaya – who has also starred in The Greatest Showman and Spider-Man: No Way Home, together with, of course, having a singing career of her own – is clearly a stellar choice to take on the weighty task of playing Ronnie. 

What’s more, Zendaya not only bears a passing resemblance to the late icon, but also has a similar mixed-race heritage: both have one African-American parent (Zendaya’s father, Ronnie’s mother – the latter was also of Cherokee descent), while Ronnie’s father was Irish-American and Zendaya’s mother Scottish-German.

When is Be My Baby out?

The bad news is that those (understandably) desperate to see Be My Baby may have to wait a while, as at present no release date has been announced.

However, it is known that the film is being made by production company A24, who were behind Oscar-winning Moonlight – while Jackie Sibblies Drury, the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright behind 2018 play Fairview, is pegged to be writing the screenplay.

Ronnie served as an executive producer on the film, together with her husband/manager Jonathan Greenfield and  Zendaya herself. 

The film will chronicle the formative years of Ronnie’s career: the signing of the Ronettes by Philles Records (the company of Phil Spector, the American record producer turned murder convict whom Ronnie later married and divorced); Phil & Ronnie’s emotionally-abusive marriage; and the couple’s bitter, prolonged divorce battle in court, which became tied in with a right feud over Ronnie’s original music. 

It will be based on Ronnie’s 1990 memoir of the same title, which was subtitled How I Survived Mascara, Miniskirts, and Madness, Or, My Life as a Fabulous Ronette. Ronnie co-authored the autobiographical book with writer Vince Waldron.