FEATURE:
Debbie Harry at Eighty
PHOTO CREDIT: Louie Banks for The Times
Bringing Her Life to the Screen
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I have written about this…
IN THIS PHOTO: Debbie Harry in 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Stein
before when it comes to Debbie Harry. The Blondie lead turns eighty on 1st July. Because of that, I have been thinking about the way that she has inspired so many people through the generations. One of the most talented and coolest band leads who has ever lived, she is hugely important. I don’t think there has ever been a biopic of Blondie. It seems like an oversight. I think that Debbie Harry would not object to having someone portray her on the screen – whether film or T.V. Blondie have been portrayed in projects before but not them at the centre. Harry is someone who has also inspired so many other musicians. I am not sure who could bring her to life, though I do think that there needs to be some form of representation very soon. As Harry is eighty very soon, I am thinking about Blondie and their rise. If not a biopic about the band, then something that is all about Debbie Harry and her life. I want to bring in a new interview from The Times. In the interview, Debbie Harry talks about the thought of turning eighty. She also discusses her 2019 book, Face It: A Memoir:
“That she looks so fabulous certainly belies much of what has happened since her bombshell heyday. With classics such as Hanging on the Telephone, Call Me and Rapture, Blondie sold millions of records before they split up in 1982. Harry partied at Studio 54 with Andy Warhol, Truman Capote and Paloma Picasso. But by the mid-1980s things were bleak. She and her bandmate, long-term boyfriend and co-songwriter, Chris Stein, had been dealing with heroin addiction and his serious illness caused by an autoimmune condition that Harry nursed him through. After being hit with a huge tax bill (their accountant hadn’t paid their taxes for two years), the couple had their possessions seized by the Internal Revenue Service, including their Manhattan townhouse. In 1987 they split. Stein subsequently married and had children, Harry didn’t, but they’re still best friends. “Those were tough times,” she says, characteristically deadpan. “But they were also very creative. Creativity and chaos often go hand in hand.”
During the 1990s, Harry, by now long since cleaned up, found herself virtually back where she started, fronting an obscure jazz outfit. But posterity has rewarded her. In 1997 Blondie re-formed and had another No 1 with Maria. Charli XCX and Sia wrote songs for their 2017 album Pollinator. One Direction and Miley Cyrus introduced the band to a new generation with their respective One Way or Another and Heart of Glass covers. There was a storming 2023 UK tour, which included playing Glastonbury.
What does Harry think her teenage self — growing up in suburban New Jersey — would have thought of a septuagenarian rocking a festival? She hoots. “She woulda thought, ‘Send the old bitch back!’ I was a snotty little ageist thing.”
In fact, her star just continues rising. Her latest role is as a face of Gucci’s Cruise 2025 collection, shot for its We Will Always Have London campaign in the back of a black cab by the renowned photographer Nan Goldin. “I just love Nan, she’s a sweetheart and a talent …” she says before being interrupted by her phone, which she squints at and then chuckles. “That was a butt dial.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Louie Banks for The Times
This career twist happened after Gucci’s creative director, Sabato De Sarno, relaunched the Blondie handbag — a 1970s archive piece — at the Cruise 2025 show, held at the Tate Modern, London, last May, with Harry in attendance. “There was a long, rampy staircase. They said, ‘Sabato is up there,’ so I was huffing and puffing up them and almost ran into him. We had an explosive moment and then … ” She was handed the campaign? “Yes, I don’t know what their thinking was but I was surprised and excited to be looked at.”
Having such an archetypal New Yorker front a London-based campaign may sound counterintuitive but, as Harry points out: “Blondie was part of the culture over there for such a long time.” It’s true the band broke the UK before the US, with their first tour here starting in Bournemouth in 1977. “Bournemouth may not seem punk now but it was then. I went back recently and thought, ‘Oh! It’s gentrified.’” Hasn’t everywhere? “Yes, everywhere’s changed.”
Yet Harry is resolutely unsentimental about the past, refusing to be drawn into any old-fogeyish praising of the good old days. “I don’t think anything can go backwards,” she says. Of today’s female pop stars, she likes Doja Cat and SZA. She loves making new young friends. “Doing this Gucci thing I’ve met a whole bunch of different people. [Her fellow Gucci campaign star, the musician] Kelsey Lu is one of them, she’s absolutely adorable.”
She’s equally unemotional about the many obstacles she has overcome. Her 2019 memoir, Face It, briskly — often humorously — lists events most people would categorise as traumatising, from having a stalker (the inspiration for One Way or Another), to being raped at knifepoint, to escaping from a car that she’s convinced was being driven by the serial killer Ted Bundy.
“Well, I had to make the book exciting,” she says. “But I’ve never been prone to hysterics. I have bad moments when I’m tired but most of the time I take things philosophically. So much the better for me — why would I want to rock my boat? I was on stage once when a bunch of Hell’s Angels took it over. I kept singing away but all of a sudden Chris yanked me off. Everyone was worried but I wasn’t. The bikers were absolutely charming, they were just so into the music”.
Some might say that it is a bit niche to have Debbie Harry biopic. Maybe it would attract fands of Blondie, though it could gain a wider audience. I know that music biopics are a risky thing. In terms of the story and who is cast in the lead. However, when it comes to Debbie Harry, she could consult and could have a direct say in who plays her. Supervise the script and direction. I am going to end with a Blondie playlist. Demonstrate and illustrate just how amazing their music is. I am not certain whether a Debbie Harry biopic or Blondie one would be best. There are other great interviews with Debbie Harry that I would advise people to check out. She is this fascinating artist who I hope records more music with Blondie. Even though their drummer Clem Burke recently died, that is not to say the band will discontinue or disband. I think that we are going to see them continue for a while. Look back at their incredible catalogue of work that it is among the most important in all of music. Debbie Harry is this icon and source of inspiration who has weathered so much. If you read Face It: A Memoir, “Harry, who is now 74, outlines the influences and events that led to her rise to fame. Written with the music writer Sylvie Simmons, the memoir is based on a series of lengthy interviews, which makes for a conversational style, though anyone looking for an excavation of the soul might be disappointed. Harry has rock ’n’ roll stories to burn but the memoir as a confessional isn’t her style. For the most part, the Blondie character remains”. On 1st July, Debbie Harry turns eighty. In addition to the celebration around that, I think there will be this sense that she needs to be brought to the screen. If done with care, passion and conviction, it could be among the best music biopics of recent years. I am sure that Debbie Harry would not object. Shining a light on the life and work of one of the greatest artists…
OF all time.