Bunnie Xo has someone in mind to play her in the film adaptation of her best-selling memoir, and it’s not who you think.
After climbing the summit of the New York Times Bestsellers List with her autobiography, Stripped Down, the podcaster and wife of Jelly Roll will enjoy a silver screen turn when its pages are converted into film.
Just five hours after learning a deal had been struck with 101 Studios, the producers of Emmy-nominated neo-western Yellowstone, Bunnie stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live for a candid chat.
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Which actor would she like to play her? Jack Black. Yes, that Jack Black. Funnyman Jack Black, from Tropic Thunder, Anaconda, School of Rock and Tenacious D. “Listen,” she reminded Kimmel’s live audience, “Jack Black is daddy, ok.”
On Thursday (March 12), Variety exclusively revealed that 101 Studios has fast-tracked Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic for a film adaptation under its new first-look deal with Universal Pictures. It was as much of a surprise to Bunnie as it was to anyone in or outside of her orbit.
The book is an unblinking, at times brutal, reflection on a life with more turns and terror than a F1 racetrack. In it, Bunnie admits it’s a miracle she’s alive between the men who beat her, the multiple overdoses, the ectopic pregnancies, the suicide attempts and even a car crash that could have left her paralyzed.
“I didn’t write this book for money,” she tells Kimmel. “I didn’t even know that I could make it on the New York Times Bestseller List when I wrote this book.” Bunnie got to work on Stripped Down in 2019, “and I just wanted to get my story out. I wanted it to be a conduit to be able to connect with people and hopefully inspire somebody along the way. And it’s just taken on a life of its own.”
Trauma doesn’t discriminate. “Writing this book has showed me and taught me that there are so many of us that are literally generational curse-breakers and we have all been affected by trauma that we never even asked for,” she continues. “And writing this book was such a cathartic journey for me and just watching how it has resonated with so many people I just feel like trauma and everything that people go through, that mess becomes a message and the tests become a testimony. And that’s what I used this book for.”
Meeting Jelly Roll brought with it another small dose of trauma; his wheels. Bunnie recounted her first meeting with the country star at a Moonshine Bandits concert in Sin City. Later, a “smoke sesh” and Jelly rolled up with his big old brown van, a vehicle she describes as “gross,” complete with a mattress and crumbs. You can almost smell it from the story. “It was disgusting,” she attests. She fell in love with Jelly, regardless, though that came later.
A decade on, he still drops his pants randomly at home. And she’s still picking them up. Perhaps they fall off, a result of Jelly losing so much weight. “He’s so skinny now. I’m so proud of him,” Bunnie enthuses. “He looks so good, so handsome.”
Bunnie also admits that she doesn’t think her hubbie has read the book (“he had to live it with me. Also, what man wants to know about his wife before?”). And, flipping it around, she doesn’t know all his music. “We have an ongoing joke in our house that anytime his song comes on Pandora, I skip it, and he’s like ‘that’s messing up my algorithm.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t care.’ I bust his balls all the time.”
The big screen adaptation will marks Bunnie’s first major foray into the world of film, and it might not be her last. Bunnie has plans to write another book.
“I definitely want to do one, but I want to let this one kind of resonate and keep growing and take on a life of its own. In probably like two years, I’ll do another book. I was thinking about doing one called The Little Black Book, because everyone is so interested in my past profession.”
Watch interview on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live below.