Bumble founder tried to get "Swiped" biopic shut down, but is 'flattered' by Lily James casting Ryan ColemanSeptember 22, 2025 at 4:18 AM 0 20th Century Studios;Bennett Raglin/Getty Lily James in 'Swiped' and Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2018 Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of the dating app Bumble, doesn'...
- - Bumble founder tried to get "Swiped" biopic shut down, but is 'flattered' by Lily James casting
Ryan ColemanSeptember 22, 2025 at 4:18 AM
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20th Century Studios;Bennett Raglin/Getty
Lily James in 'Swiped' and Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2018
Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of the dating app Bumble, doesn't know if she's ready for the Hollywood treatment.
The tech entrepreneur's unprecedented rise to become the world's youngest billionaire provided the basis for the upcoming film Swiped, which cast Cinderella star Lily James in the Herd-inspired central role.
"So, I can't make it through the whole trailer, it's too weird for me," Herd told CNBC in a Friday interview.
"No, I'm not involved in it," she continued, confessing, "Frankly, I was informed about this movie after it was already off to the races. I think they had already written the script and done all these things. I even was asking my lawyer two years ago, like, 'What do I do? I don't want a movie about me. Shut it down!'"
Herd recalled her lawyer responding, "'There's nothing you can do, you're somewhat of a public figure, there's public information out there, they're going to do what they're going to do.'"
So, Swiped is coming whether Herd wants it or not. But if she can't even make it through the trailer, will she buy tickets for the full film?
"I don't know if I'm going to watch it or not," she said. "I'm obviously both terrified and maybe slightly flattered? But I think the strangeness and the fear of it outweighs any flattery. Listen, we'll just see. I guess I gotta get some popcorn and stay tuned. But I am honored that they chose Lily James, she's a talented actress."
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The first trailer for Swiped, which released last month, charts a rise similar to Herd's, from early start to co-founding the popular, pre-Bumble dating app Tinder. But when Herd's female coworkers begin to pass along concerning reports from Tinder's female users — "there's an article about how pervasive the dick pics are"; "they report and nothing happens" — she pivots to "change the rules of online dating" and create her own app.
Though James' character literally says, "My name is Whitney Wolfe" in the trailer for Swiped, director Rachel Lee Goldbenberg told TIME on Friday that "Swiped is inspired by, not based on. We're shaping that research, and using as much truth and accuracy as we can, and then also focusing on the emotional truth" of Herd's story.
James has participated in bringing other real-life stories to the big screen. In 2023, she portrayed Pam Adkisson, the wife of professional wrestler Kevin Von Erich, the kingpin of the Von Erich dynasty played by Zac Efron in The Iron Claw. In 2021, she played the archeologist Peggy Piggott in The Dig, which dramatized the 1939 excavation of the ancient Anglo-Saxon cemetery Sutton Hoo in England.
Francois Durand/Getty
Lily James in Paris in 2025
Most controversially, she portrayed Pamela Anderson in the 2022 limited series Pam & Tommy, which focused on the chaotic time in the Baywatch star's life in which her sex tape with former partner Tommy Lee was leaked. At the time of Pam & Tommy's release, Anderson told Entertainment Weekly via a representative that she'd "never, never watch this. Not even years from now. Not even the trailer."
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