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Joey King, who portrayed Munchausen by proxy syndrome victim Gypsy Rose Blanchard on the Hulu biographical crime drama The Act, recently said that Blanchard contacted her after being released from prison in December 2023.
In a Monday, April 15 appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast, host Dax Shepard asked King if she had heard from any real-life people portrayed in The Act. She answered:
"Gypsy sent me a message recently. We didn't have any contact when we were filming the show but since she's been released, she reached out and we had a quick little exchange which was really nice."
Gypsy Rose Blanchard famously served eight years in prison for her role in the murder of her abusive mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, who had Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Joey King felt portraying "someone's real life" was a "big responsibility"
The latest episode of the Armchair Expert podcast saw actress Joey King talking about her experience filming The Act. King told podcast host Dax Shepard that she felt it was quite "interesting" that Hulu's The Act was released around the same time as Netflix's The Kissing Booth, which also starred Joey King.
Joey King also revealed that she was not offered the role of Gypsy Rose Blanchard and had to audition for it. King said she was "so lucky" to have landed the part.
"I did not do Gypsy's voice in the audition. They did not want anyone to. Once I got the role, I was like, 'Guys, I kind of think we should do it.' It's [a] very huge part of the personality," she recalled.
King said that making The Act was one of the "most incredible experiences" she's ever had. She first met her husband and director, Steven Piet, on the show and made friends with several others, including actors Patricia Arquette and AnnaSophia Robb, as well as showrunner Nick Antosca.
Apart from the "fabulous" friendships she forged on the set of The Act, the show's material also excited her as an actor. However, King also said this was "someone's real life" and, therefore, a "big responsibility" was attached to it.
"It's not like a biopic, and the person's not alive anymore," she said, adding, "It was exciting but then I remember thinking to myself, 'If I mess this up, this could totally ruin my career.'"
Shepard complimented Joey King's acting stripes for pulling off a role like that and said it was a high-risk job, but once she accomplished that, people would be willing to give her any role. Joey King thanked Dax and said:
"It's also so different from obviously who I am. I don't sound like that at all. Of course. And I don't really move like that. I really enjoyed the idea of like stripping away any kind of vanity that I have on a lot of other sets."
"Getting to be so challenged with a character. It was a great experience. And having that real person exist, too, was scary. But. it was also like, okay, really wanna do it right," she added.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison on December 2023 after serving eight years of her ten-year sentence. She was recently in the news for announcing her separation from her husband and Louisiana middle school special education teacher Ryan Scott Anderson.
Joey King's The Act, which tells the story of Blanchard and her mother, is available to stream on Hulu.
