Casting The Roddy Piper Film

9. Kitty Jo Dittrich - Brie Larson

Sam Rockwell Piper 2
Netflix

Roddy Piper and Kitty Jo Dittrich got married in 1982 and remained together until his death in 2015, a depressingly rare example of a major pro wrestler from the '80s who didn't leave a trail of broken marriages in his wake. Piper's private life remained largely private, as the Manitoba-native concentrated more on cultivating a public personality than allowing the curtain to be drawn back at all.

Mrs Roddy Piper might not have featured much in Hot Rod's professional life but her presence isn't going to be ignored in the biopic. Not a huge amount is known about Kitty Jo, which makes casting her very tricky indeed. With little understanding of personality to go on, how do you set about finding the right individual to portray this stabilising influence on Piper's life?

With that in mind, you can put together a laundry list of names who can fill the role. Elisabeth Moss? Saoirse Ronan? Brie Larson? You can't really go wrong with any of them but my vote is going to the latter, largely because of the mirrored desire to keep a private life private.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.