With a shocking true story like that of convicted murderer and Munchausen syndrome by proxy victim Gypsy Rose Blanchard, it was inevitable that someone would turn it into programming. It was far less inevitable that the television adaptation would be good, but here we are. Patricia Arquette, who portrays Gypsy Rose's murdered mother Dee Dee Blanchard, scored an Emmy nod for Hulu's The Act, as did Joey King, who stars as Gypsy Rose. What does the real Gypsy Rose — who is incarcerated on second degree murder charges for orchestrating the killing of Dee Dee — think of that? Apparently, her feelings are mixed.
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King's portrayal of Gypsy Rose was praised for her emotional nuance and her remarkable grasp on Gypsy Rose's voice and mannerisms. The similarities are seen in Erin Lee Carr's 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, in which Gypsy Rose is interviewed. Even Gypsy Rose can't deny that King "nailed" her portrayal, family friend spokesperson Fancy Macelli told TMZ. However, Macelli added to the outlet that Gypsy Rose still has reservations about The Act and therefore won't meet with her portrayer in person.
According to Macelli, Gypsy Rose claims that Hulu's show is "inaccurate," especially when it comes to the portrayals of her sex life, which Gypsy Rose says was "dramatized to make her seem like a nymphomaniac." The subject of the TV series added that her mother tying her to her bed (which happens multiple times in The Act) only happened one time in real life, after Gypsy Rose tried to escape Dee Dee's house.
Earlier this year, King told Refinery29 that she was so eager to portray Gypsy Rose in the Hulu series that she shaved her head for the third time in her career.
"When [The Act] came about, I had a little bit of hesitation, like, I don’t know, man, do I really want to do [shave my head] again? But then I took a second, and I was like, I want this job so badly that I would do anything. And I meant it."
As for Gypsy Rose, she is reportedly "thriving" in prison, where she is serving a 10-year sentence. She is engaged to a man named Ken, who was her pen pal and began corresponding with her after learning of her story.