Blondie’s Debbie Harry to Play Pamela Anderson’s Mother in Movie Comedy ‘Maitreya’

Blondie singer Debbie Harry is headed back to the big screen. The legendary punk/new wave singer who has dozens of acting credits to her name will play Pamela Anderson’s mother in the comedy Maitreya.

According to Deadline, the film that is launching in the Cannes market will follow, “Maitreya (Anderson), a rising star in the New Age Healing community who is about to head off to a conference in India when she receives a call from her estranged sister, Monica: their father is dying. Rather than stay home with him, Maitreya decides to bring her entire family – including her mother Barbara (Harry) – to the conference and put her New Age healing theories to the test (all while surreptitiously gathering material for her next book).”

The movie will be directed by Emmy-nominee and Portlandia co-creator Jonathan Krisel, with a script by BAFTA nominee Samuel D. Hunter (The Whale) and shooting scheduled to begin at the end of this year.

Rock n’ Roll Hall of Famer Harry has long had a parallel career in movies, from her cameo in the iconic 1982 hip-hop film Wild Style, to a role in director David Cronenberg’s sci-fi horror classic Videodrome (1983), as well as acting gigs in John Waters’ Hairspray (1988), Cop Land (1997), Deuces Wild (2002) and Elegy (2008), among many others. She recently made a cameo on SNL, where she introduced host/musical guest Olivia Rodrigo’s “drop dead” performance.

Anderson is in the midst of a late career glow-up, including SAG and Golden Globe nominations for her role in director Gia Coppola’s drama The Last Showgirl, with a number of upcoming films on tap, including Rosebush Pruning (with Riley Keough, Callum Turner, Elle Fanning), Somedays (with Billy Bob Thornton) and actor Michael Cera’s upcoming directorial debut, Love Is Not the Answer, alongside Steve Coogan, Jamie Dornan and Lucas Hedges.