For her new role in the upcoming biopic, titled Trust Me, I’m a Doctor, actress Abbie Cornish has completely transformed herself into Playboy Playmate and reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith. And according to reports, the rest of the cast is super impressed with her performance.
Her co-star, Kal Penn, who plays physician Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, told Variety he was completely shocked the first time he saw the actress walk on set in character. “She really embodied Anna Nicole in a very striking way,” Penn said. “She was a completely different person. I briefly met Anna Nicole a handful of times way back when I was starting my career, and she was on a reality show. I never really had any conversations of any note with her but it definitely brought me back to that time. Abbie is excellent. She’s phenomenal in this role.”
He also went on to mention that Cornish isn’t playing an exaggerated version of the Smith. She’s kept her performance more grounded. “I didn’t feel like it was an impersonation,” he explained. “I felt like she brought all of the heart and the vulnerability and the complexity of Anne Nicole Smith.”
Trust Me, I’m a Doctor isn’t a straightforward Anna Nicole Smith biopic. The film, based on a 2017 memoir, Trust Me, I’m A Doctor: My Life Before, During and After Anna Nicole Smith, actually tells her story from Kapoor’s viewpoint. The story will recount how his medical career ened after he was charged with several felonies over the medication he prescribed Smith before her accidental overdose death in 2007. Following a 9-week long trial, Kapoor was actually cleared of all wrongdoing. This is his story.
The rest of the cast for the film sounds really impressive, too. Linda Hamilton will play Ellyn Garofalo, Kapoor’s attorney.
We’ve gotten a few earlier first-look images of the film, which show Hamilton and Penn in their roles in a courthouse hallway. Another image shows Smith and Kapoor at the 2005 West Hollywood Pride parade – which actually drew scrutiny over their doctor-patient relationship back then.
In preparation for the role, Penn spoke directly with the real Kapoor. “He walked me through the difference between somebody who may have a dependency on something and somebody who is addicted to something,” Penn said.
The statement aligns with what Kapoor has previously said publicly: that the trial found Smith was not an addict but someone being treated for legitimate pain issues.
Written and directed by Thane Economou, Trust Me, I’m a Doctor arrives in movie theatres on 16 October. Cornish previously called landing the role “such a dream” when she was cast opposite Penn back in 2024.
But it’s not the only Anna Nicole Smith movie coming this year. A second, entirely separate Anna Nicole Smith film, Hurricanna, premiered in 2025. In May 2026, Magenta Light Studios acquired the distribution rights to the film. Francesca Gregorini’s Hurricanna stars Sylvia Hoeks as Smith, alongside Holly Hunter as her therapist, plus Mark Duplass and Nicholas Hamilton. It also tells a completely different story and focuses on Smith’s final 24 hours, telling it from three colliding perspectives – Smith’s, her psychiatrist’s, and her former lover’s. Producers describe it as a “pressure cooker character drama.”
Having two competing Anna Nicole Smith biopics in one year says something about how the entertainment industry has been re-examining tabloid-era icons. Smith’s story now highlights a wave of reassessment that has already touched on Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Pamela Anderson, whose own Netflix documentary helped kick off renewed interest in revisiting how these women were treated by the press at the height of their fame.
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